United Way Tops Target by $100,000 - CUETS Wins Spirit Award

Regina Leader Post
Thursday, December 9, 1999

Article by Will Chabun
of The Leader-Post

It's a 'three-peat'.
For the third time in three consecutive years, Regina's United Way campaign has topped its target - and set a record in the process.

Campaign chair Ed Allinutt told a high-spirited campaign wind-up luncheon on Wednesday that this year's campaign has collected $1,947,056.

That's almost $100,000 above this year's target of $1,850,000 - and substantially more than the $1,770,000 raised last year.

"Ladies and gentlemen, pat yourselves on the back for raising the most money ever raised in the history of the United Way of Regina!" Allinutt told the packed gathering at the Delta.

Allinutt's deputy, Dan McMurtry, said the key to this year's successful campaign was getting a large number of volunteers. He placed the total at around 3,000, including workplace volunteers, personnel "loaned" to the United Way by local corporations and agencies and the "campaign cabinet" of executives.

Also important was getting out the campaign's message by distributing accounts of how campaign funds help 37 member agencies. "What's a few dollars to you, or I, for them is really significant," he said. "It really does drive home the fact that a little bit can go a long way.

"It's a much-overused phrase, but it certainly is true: Connecting people's donations to the actual work that's performed, I think, makes it more meaningful."

The luncheon was punctuated with success stories, like how CUETS (Credit Union Electronic Transaction Services) increased its donations by a staggering 377 percent, or the name of the organization whose management and staff made the biggest individual donation: Ipsco, with a total of $105,046.

There was the workplace with the highest proportion of "leadership givers" - staffers who gave more than $500 each: Regina's Greystone Capital Management.

And then there was the story of campaign manager Kelly McElree, who'd pledged to let himself be shaved bald if the campaign exceeded its goal. That's exactly what happened - to the raucous cheers of the 400 people at Wednesday's luncheon.

Asked how long it had been since three consecutive targets had been exceeded, a beaming United Way CEO Wayne Hellquist said, "near as we can track it back, not since the 1970s. And until the last three years, we hadn't met the goal in about 20 years. So to pass our goal by $100,000, once again illustrates the importance of giving to our community."