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March 12, 2010

United Way celebrates year’s achievements

Charles Oliver Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — JMJ-ready

coliver 3/12/10 With photos by Charles? It was awfully dark in there. I don’t know how they turned out

Suggested headline: United Way celebrates year’s achievements

By Charles Oliver

charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com



The Dalton area can’t depend on the state government to take care of it, says Ken Jackson, chief financial officer of Shaw Industries.

“The state of Georgia is today trying to deal with whether they have a $1 billion budget deficit or a $2 billion budget deficit,” Jackson said Friday at the United Way of Northwest Georgia’s annual meeting.

“They aren’t going to save the day. At the end of the day, it comes back to private support. We are counting on one another,” said Jackson, who was the event’s keynote speaker. “The reality is that in most cases the people in a community are better at determining what needs to be done to help others in their community.”

United Way officials said they met their 2009-2010 fundraising campaign goal of $2.95 million.

The agency has met its goal the last several years but the goal has decreased from $4 million in 2007 to $3.5 million in 2008 to $2.95 million for 2009.

United Way’s annual report pointed to a number of other achievements in 2009.

For instance, the group handled 7,445 calls seeking assistance and referred more than 23,335 individuals to agencies that might help them. Most of those requests were for rent or mortgage assistance, help paying for utilities or help buying food.

The local United Way also connected 2,769 individuals looking to volunteer with opportunities to help others. Those volunteers provided 15,996 hours of service.

Tim Ausmus, a plant manager at Shaw Industries, talked about some of the volunteer work done by employees at Shaw. They have done work with a number of different agencies, including the Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Ausmus said that getting out in the community and seeing the people that are being helped shows just how important the United Way and the 20 agencies it supports are.

“If you go to these organizations and lend a helping hand, it’s needed. If they hand you a brush and some paint and say ‘Here, go at it,’ you aren’t doing busy work. You are doing things that need to be done,” Ausmus said.

Ausmus added that he thinks the Dalton community is stronger because of the recession because of the way people have come together to support each other during the tough times.

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