The Gift That Keeps On Giving: The Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way’s Community Outreach
From Humble Beginnings To a World Wide Effort
All the way back in 1887 in Denver, Colorado a woman, priest, rabbi, and two ministers all got together and decided to make a difference. While this sounds like a set up to a bad joke it was actually the start of something beautiful. Frances Jacobs, Rev. Myron Reed, William O’Ryan, Dean Hart, and Rabbi William Friedman all came together with the common vision of giving back to those less fortunate and founded the United States first United Campaign Fund. This United Fund was dedicated to helping their local community and helped support over 16 different schools, hospitals and food banks. Since its humble founding this United Fund grew into one of the largest private non-profit agencies in the entire world.
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Today the renamed United Way has multiple branches in all 50 states and is expanding internationally. The United Way now offers a number of programs and services for their community. Their current projects are all rooted in their 3 foundations of education, financial stability, and health. Working together with volunteers, local business, and other charity agencies the United Way has been able to make a positive meaningful and lasting impression on communities around the country for over 130 years!
Moving In To Pennsylvania
The United Way first started to gain attention in Central Pennsylvania in the early 1950s. When first entering the area, the organization was still using the name of the United Fund or Community Chest Fund. At first their presence was mostly made up of newspaper and magazine adds asking for donations. During the 1950s it was still considered improper to ask for money directly from people. This however would not stop the United Fund’s drive to help those in need. Local branches still held charity events to help fund their mission and other volunteers made annual phone calls to Pennsylvanian residents asking for support
Putting Down Roots
The 1960s saw tremendous monetary growth for the United Way. Fundraisers and new campaigns were constantly being held to bolster community funds. The 1960s also saw the establishment of local branches of the United Way. The Sunbury area once had over 14 regional branches at one point. The United Way’s charity efforts began to focus on local needs and organizations during the 1970s as well. Instead of collecting money and sending it to a national headquarters, money was now being funneled right back into the community though donations to a number of local organizations such as public libraries, the Red Cross, the Boy and Girl Scouts among several others.
United We Stand
The following decades saw a huge spike in cooperation among all the regional United Way offices. Each may have catered to different area but each one understood that greater success could be achieved together. Many began to cooperate with specifically the Central Susquehanna Valley branch based out of Sunbury. As a result, the Central Susquehanna Valley branch became the unofficial leader among all the others and was always ready to extend a helping help. Many of the smaller offices decided to merge and pool their resources instead of competing with each other as well. By 1996 the 14 original branches had merged into 6.
130 Years And Counting
Today all regional branches have merged into one office that serves the greater area. Today, The Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way has taken a much more hands on approach to community engagement. Now offering a wide variety of programs to local residents directly instead of just making monetary donations. These include a daycare service at little to no cost, counseling on personal finance, support for those above the poverty line but not able to afford most necessities and countless others. They have also created a number of campaigns to promote community bonding and health like their Be Kind campaign which encouraged residents to do one act of selflessness each day.
Curators Note
This project has had to be changed drastically due to the recent outbreak of the COVID 19 virus. Originally it was going to focus much more heavily on the Greater Susquehanna Valley branch of the United Way. However given stay at home restrictions it was decided instead to discuss the United Way on a national level with a focus on the Greater Susquehanna Valley region. This was done to highlight all the good that the United Way has been doing in the face of the virus both locally and nationally.