Kerite Company Campaign Begins

Kerite Company in Seymour kicked off its United Way campaign on November 21 with employee meetings hosted by John DeGray, company president and VUW board member. A strong supporter of the United Way, Mr. DeGray encouraged his employees to be as generous as possible and offered LIVE UNITED tee shirts to all first-time givers and employees who increase their donations from last year. The company also matches all employee donations dollar-for-dollar through the matching gift program of Kerite’s owner, The Marmon Group.

Jack Walsh and Laurel Vicidomino of the Valley United Way spoke at the campaign meetings, along with Laurel Anderson from 2-1-1 Info Line. 2-1-1 Info Line provides information and confidential referrals to health and social service programs and crisis intervention counseling for those in need. It can be accessed toll-free from anywhere in Connecticut by simply dialing 2-1-1 and operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Multilingual call specialists and TDD access is available. “It’s important to show our employees where their donation dollars go,” said Alicia Gsell, HR Director and member of the committee who coordinates campaign activities for the company. “We are especially excited to have Laurel speak to the group about the resources available to our employees and their families by dialing 2-1-1.”

In addition to its annual campaign, Alicia and fellow committee members Erica Byrd, Tim Murray and Frank Giusto plan a number of other employee activities to support the community. They recently completed a very successful food drive for Spooner House. In October, the company held an Employee Appreciation Day that included a dunk tank for charity. Employees paid $5 a ticket to dunk their bosses and raised a total of $540 for Valley United Way. “It was a fun and easy way to raise money,” said Alicia. “Our committee is planning more activities like this one in the coming months.”