collective strength

Guest blogs are back!  This week brings you Amy Belkin.  Amy has served in many roles with our organization.  She's been board president, campaign chair and is doing another round of service on the board.  She's our go to person on communications.  Amy and I met under very funny circumstances, at least they are now.  Enjoy her blog post and ask her to tell the story sometime about how we met.  Enjoy!  Here's Amy...

I came to do the United Way video, way back when.  About a million years ago, or so it seems.  That was in the mid-90’s, yes, in another century.  It was an interesting time at United Way of Jackson County.  Dee Anne had been the executive director for about a year and the energy was bouncing off the walls.  What I knew about United Way came from my background in news and how our station covered the organization.  And ideas that I brought from childhood, mostly erroneous.  That’s the thing about information we glom onto in our sprout years.  It reflects our small and wondrous view of the world.  While all memory is created as it passes through our filters and then conjured up with even less accuracy, in childhood it is even more distorted because the magnifying glass sees only one small piece of the world at a time and we don’t have much experience to put it in perspective.  So, United Way for me was a a do-good organization that helped people in need, but was run by dull adults who didn’t have much to do in life or much ambition of any sort.  Fast forward to my television news days and you find a reporter starting to piece together the bigger picture when covering stories about agencies, poverty, and United Way’s helping hand.  However, all of those experiences fell way short of truly understanding the reach and the depth of United Way of Jackson County.  To learn about that, to put it in perspective, I actually had to come do the video, and then serve on a committee, and then participate on the board of directors.  Only then did my true understanding of the importance of United Way deepen to do the organization justice.  It took another couple of years to truly get up to speed, because United Way is so much more than an organization that raises money to help people.  And over time it has grown to encompass truly exciting and visionary work.  When I came to do the video the message was about community.  And we, all of us, are that community.  A strong community is about collective strength, caring, and the ability to solve problems.  We, together, make a difference.  Today, the message is the same.  Only it’s deeper, broader, and more encompassing.  How so?  We now engage on a community building level. We help bring agencies and community leaders together to see what’s possible by having conversations that engage our collective wisdom.  We have stepped into a new level of participation.  Why?  Because we can.  Because we have a strong and innovative leader willing to take chances.  Because we have a board of directors diverse in experience, expertise, and age.  Because we have a staff willing and able to accept torch after torch and make it happen.  One of our great strengths is our continuity of leadership, both at the staff and board levels.  These are the reasons United Way of Jackson County has become a standout among United Ways in the country.  These are the reasons it’s all about community, collective wisdom, strength, caring, and the ability to solve problems.