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  • Kevin Sanders, the 2012 campaign chairman for United Way, reveals this year's fundraising goal of $3.35 million during a luncheon on Tuesday. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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  • Ed Hoggs speaks during the United Way campagin kickoff on Tuesday at the trade center (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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September 12, 2012

United Way: A little means a lot

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com

Johnny Rambo came to Dalton two years ago, sent here by the state parole system to go through the drug rehabilitation program at the Carter Hope Center.

“They were the only ones who would take me,” he said. “I was sent to Dalton, Georgia, to recover from a life of drugs, a life of crime and a life of destruction.”

Rambo spoke Tuesday at the United Way of Northwest Georgia’s Campaign Kickoff at the trade center. He said he started using cocaine when he was 18, just after graduating high school. That began 25 years of drug abuse and crime.

But in Dalton, he said, he found hope.

“Everyone else had given up hope in me. But when I arrived in Dalton and went to the Carter Hope Center, I was welcomed with open arms. I was able to make decisions in my own mind and in my own life, and I made the decision that I would listen to what those people had to say and that I would take the steps necessary to change my life,” he said. “It helped me to live a life that I did not know existed.”

Rambo completed the program, got off drugs and got a job at Beaulieu of America that he has held since. He told the audience members that when they support the United Way they support agencies like the Carter Hope Center.

In fact, Carter Hope Center is one of 20 agencies in Whitfield and Murray counties supported by the United Way. The kickoff ceremony highlighted several of them, including Meals on Wheels, the Family Support Council, RossWoods Adult Day Services and Friendship House.

Ed Hoggs, a minister and employee of Shaw Industries, said that when people help the United Way they help their friends and neighbors.

“A little bit from us means everything to a mother who is trying to stop her kids from having to sleep in the back seat of their car,” he said. “A little bit from us means everything to a son who is trying to take care of his aging mother with Alzheimer’s. A little bit from us means everything to a woman with bruises on her face who has to escape from an abusive relationship with only the clothes on her back.”

Kevin Sanders, chairman of the United Way’s campaign committee, said the group has set a goal of raising $3.35 million this year. Sanders noted that despite the difficult economic times the Dalton area has seen over the past few years the United Way raised $3.25 million from 8,474 donors last year, well above what the United Way raised in some larger Georgia communities. Bill Davies was the 2011 campaign chair.

Sanders said, for instance, that Athens raised just $2.3 million, Gainesville raised $1.9 million and Albany raised just $1.2 million.

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