Tour of Agencies

Heartland United Way Tour of Agencies

 

Posted: Thursday, August 13, 2015 8:32 pm | Updated: 10:13 pm, Fri Aug 14, 2015.

By Jeff Bahr

 

Participants, including Doane University human relations major Sierra Larson (right), introduce themselves during a lunch break Thursday as United Way Tour of Agencies participants stop at the YWCA in Grand Island. Tour participants were introduced to 16 different agencies that work under the Heartland United Way umbrella during the tour. 

Kern Saleena took part in the Heartland United Way Tour of Agencies on Thursday hoping to make connections that will benefit patrons of Food Bank for the Heartland.

Saleena is one of the directors of Food Bank for the Heartland, which distributes food the last Friday of each month at Spirit of Life Church.

The families that pick up food have a lot of needs, he said. Many of those people are displaced and uninformed.

Saleena hopes that United Way agencies and other people he met on Thursday can benefit those needy people. He would like to see those groups “join forces and be able to connect on a better level.”

 

Another person on the tour was Fred Groenke, store director at Super Saver. He attended because he wanted to learn more about the agencies served by the Heartland United Way.

Groenke said he gets a lot of requests from his associates and customers at Super Saver who “need some help and need to know where to turn.” He was urged to join the tour by Bonnie Westfall of the Heartland United Way.

Visiting those agencies on Thursday helped him “get a better idea of what kind of referrals I can make and where I can try to send them,” he said.

Saleena and Groenke were two of about 40 people who hopped on the bus on Thursday to be part of the Heartland United Way’s twice-yearly Tour of Agencies. Between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., the group heard from 16 organizations at a dozen stops.

One of the stops on Thursday morning was at the YWCA. Heartland United Way funds support four of the YWCA’s programs — parenting, preschool, Girls Circle and Financial Peace University.

Because of United Way funding, beginning this month the YWCA is able to offer preschool to all of its child care children between 3 and 5 years old at no extra cost. Also because of the United Way, Spanish immersion classes will be offered to all of the YWCA’s preschoolers.

“So we will have three groups of kids taking Spanish immersion twice a week, and that’s an exciting opportunity that we wouldn’t have without the United Way,” Executive Director Mandy Burkett said.

The bus also pulled up to Friendship House, which has been a United Way member since 2012. The United Way support is very helpful in increasing the community’s awareness of Friendship House, Executive Director Chase Francl said.

For next year, Friendship House is allocated $25,000 in United Way funding. Taking advantage of additional fundraising opportunities, the organization received just more than $32,000 from the United Way this past year, Francl said.

In addition to United Way support, Friendship House receives about $500,000 a year from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Behavioral Health.

At least 10 of the people on the tour were employees of the Principal Financial Group, which is a big supporter of the Heartland United Way. The company’s goal for United Way pledges for this coming year is $55,000, said Tanya Gebhard, one of the co-chairs. The parent company matches each dollar. So if Grand Island employees pledge $55,000, the total contribution will be $110,000.

 

At lunch, the group heard from three employees of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. One of them, Yolanda Chavez Nuncio, told the tour group that, between Feb. 1 and Aug. 12 of this year, Lutheran Family Services in Grand Island served more than 100 individuals. That total included 45 people from Somalia, 13 from Sudan, 12 from Cuba, 10 from Mexico, four from Guatemala, three from South Africa, two from Ethiopia and one each from Laos, China, the Bahamas, Kenya, El Salvador and the Ivory Coast.

Other tour participants included Joe Mlinar of St. Paul, who is the Howard County United Way chairman this year, and Grand Island attorney Ron Depue.

Depue, who was on his seventh or eighth tour, said he learns something new each time. A former board member and chairman, he is now head of strategic planning for Heartland United Way and the Hall County chairman.

It’s good to see the differences United Way makes in people’s lives, he said. It’s also a pleasure to deal with the staff of Heartland United Way, who are very engaged “and passionate about helping other people.”

Arrow Stage Lines provided the bus and a driver at no cost to the United Way. Lunch was provided by Firehouse Subs.