With the kickoff a few weeks away, United Way organizers are preparing for their 2010-2011 campaign.
This year the chair for the event is Bernie Steinmetz, who was vice chair last year. Pat DeMonte, executive director of the Tiffin-Seneca United Way, said the theme Lights, Camera, Action! Day by Day, Reel by Reel, Together we Live United is a tribute to Steinmetz's love of movies.
"Each year we try to come up with a theme to make the United Way campaign fun," Steinmetz said. "We thought of a few things, but we really ended up with the movie theme because we thought we could have a lot of fun with it. With this movie theme, there are a lot of things we can do we can make our meetings fun, we can make our publicity fun and it can draw attention to what we really want to do, raise money for the United Way."
Steinmetz said he has enjoyed past involvement and looks forward to this year's campaign.
"Anytime you do anything like this there is a lot of work but I really did enjoy (being the vice chair) last year," Steinmetz said. "One of the big things for me was that I had never sat through the allocation process before, and that really made me realize how important the campaign is and how many needs there are in the community. That's really a motivation to be involved in the United Way campaign itself."
Helping Steinmetz as vice chair is Jeannine Curns, who has participated in past campaigns.
"It's been a while since I've worked with them . but I've been a contributor to the United Way for many years, and I think this was an opportunity to say 'OK, money is one thing, but the community really needs our service.' So when Bernie called and asked if I would agree to be his co-chair, I thought 'This might be an opportunity to give back more than money,'" Curns said.
"I've known Jeannine for a long time and I knew that she would be a good compliment to what I would be as chair and I knew we would work well together," Steinmetz said.
Steinmetz and Curns are to work with a number of others, including DeMonte and returning section chairs Dan Frank, Patrick Hanna and Debora Wyka and newcomer Kim Illig.
"They're a great bunch of people they're hard workers and they have a keen sense of the community because they're business people who are out in the community and know what the needs are," DeMonte said.
"I think we have really good section chairs this year and I think they'll do an excellent job of following through," Steinmetz said.
Curns said she is looking forward to working with DeMonte again.
"There aren't enough good things to say about Pat," Curns said. "She's enthusiastic, she takes the lead, she's there when something needs to be done and she goes above and beyond."
The goal for the 2010-2011 campaign is $475,000, slightly above last year's goal of $455,000. DeMonte said it was difficult deciding on the goal in this harsh economy.
"We understand that the economy is still difficult, and even though it is showing signs of rebound, a lot of people are still out of work and less people have the ability to give, but more people need help," DeMonte said. "We're just asking that people who have a job and are able to contribute a little, if they would step up and help us so we can provide services for those that can't."
"We're really hopeful the community will realize that and once again respond to the needs and it really shows how much people care for other people in our community," Steinmetz added.
Last year's campaign raised $502,000.
"It was exciting to surpass the goal by so much," DeMonte said. "We know our campaign cabinet members worked very hard and were diligent and we appreciate the strong support of our foundations, especially the National Machinery Foundation, who came through for us."
The pre-campaign has started with pace-setter American Electric Power. Other pace-setters include Toledo Molding and Die, Mercy Hospital Tiffin, The City of Tiffin and Seneca County.
The campaign officially kicks off with Seneca Star Search, 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at The Ritz Theatre.
"This is a fun event that gets the enthusiasm going towards the campaign and motivates people to think about the community," DeMonte said. "We look at it to put the fun back into fundraising."
The event features local talent. Auditions are to be held Sept. 8 and 9 and audition forms can be found at The Ritz Theatre or the United Way website, www.tsunitedway.org.
The campaign's online auction, "Lights, Camera, Auction!", is going on right now on the United Way website. People are encouraged to bid on a variety of items from local donors.
Steinmetz said he looks forward to the events and getting the campaign under way. He added the United Way campaign is a great chance for people to give back to the community and help others in need.
"We all appreciate the opportunity to help people who are really trying to help themselves but haven't had the good fortune lately," he said.
