A Fun Side to United Way

 With all the recent heat, I thought today would be a good day to take a break from the more serious side of United Way to talk about some of the "lighter" news. As you can see from the graphic above, United Ways all over New England are participating in Six Flags New England's two United Way Fun Days, and the first is coming up this Saturday, July 31. Six flags is allowing United Way supporters to buy specially discounted tickets for the day through an on-line ordering process. The deal includes all day admission to Six Flags New England and Hurricane Harbor Water Park, free parking and an "All You Can Eat" buffet. The total value of the package is $77.00, but the special United Way price for the day is $40.00. We have a link on our website, or you can simply click here to go directly to the site. A portion of the ticket price will go back to United Way. The deadline for tickets for this Saturday is today, so you'll need to rush!

If you like baseball, our good friends at BIC and the Bridgeport Bluefish have a deal for you as well.As part of their annual campaign for United Way, BIC are having a special night at Harbor Yard on Tuesday, August 3. The Bluefish will be playing the York Revolution, and you get get a ticket for $10 which includes a special Kids Eat Free event for kids age 12 and under. Simply click here, and enter "Bic" as the password to purchase your tickets. A portion of the ticket price will go back to United Way.

So go out and have some fun, and at the same time, you will be benefiting United Way.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Leadership Greater Valley Accepting Applications

One of the great things that we are involved with at Valley United Way is community leadership. Earlier this year we had several stories about our own Youth Leadership program, but it's that time of year when we switch gears and talk about Leadership Greater Valley - a unique leadership program conducted jointly by Valley United Way, the Valley Council for Health & Human Services and the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce. Now in its 15th year, this program is uniquely by and for the Valley, and produces outstanding new leaders for the Valley every year.

Class of 2009

The program has really evolved. Originally, it was a program of United Way and the Valley Council. It's focus was a bit more narrow in promoting diversity in volunteer leadership positions throghout the Valley and much of the training focused on board skills. United Way wrote and administered grants that supported the the program. There was a consensus that the long term success of the program would need to include greater involvement by the business community. And then Bill Purcell arrived at the Chamber in our "All America" year of 2000. One of Bill's goals was to develop a leadership program at the Chamber. The connections were obvious, and the program was renamed Leadership Greater Valley with the three partners working together to carry on the program. The Chamber now provides the administrative support to coordinate the efforts of our volunteer committee.

What makes this program so unique is the blending of personal skills and knowledge of the community that is interwoven throughout the eight week program. This year's program includes eight sessions with the topics ranging from qualitites of leadership to the history of the Valley. Along the way, the participants have the opportunity to meet and mingle with leaders from every walk of life in the Valley. At the end of the program, they bring their new skills and contacts back to their business life - and also their community life as our Volunteer Center Director Pat Tarasovic works with them to find a placement in a volunteer leadership postition in the Valley. Two former participants are currently my "bosses" as members of Valley United Way's Board of Directors - Adrienne Cabral and Eileen Lopez-Cordone.

Leadership Greater Valley now has its own "alumni" association linking all past members of the program. They now have their own Facbook site which you can find by clicking here.

I personally try to get to as many of the sessions as possible. Not only to take pictures of the sessions, but also because I find that I learn something new at just about every session. I would highly recommend this program to anyone looking to develop their personal leadership skills and to learn more about the great community where we live and work.

Nancie Gray has put together this year's application, and you can get it by clicking here.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Nick is in the home stretch

Take a minute to think just how far Nick Tarasovic has gone while training for the Revolutiion3 Cedar Point iron man event to be held in Septmeber. When Nick sends me his weekly reports to update our website, I seldom stop to contemplate what they are adding up to. Through Sunday, Nick has accumulated 3,722 miles of motion on land and in the water. That means he's already done the equivalent of a trip across country to Los Angeles - and he's now well on his way back. I get tired just thinking of the hours that have gone into it so far - and how much more is still to come before it's over!

With the Tour deFrance currently reaching a conclusion, I think many people are getting a greater appreciation for the difficulty involved, but I also think it gives one a better understanding of just how difficult Nick's quest is. He is training to do 112 miles on a bike in one day, but he is also going to run a marathon and swim 2.4 miles the same day!!

I do a bit of running myself (OK, maybe running would be overstating my speed!), and I can appreciate the tenacity that Nick has in getting out there almost every single day. There are lots of days where I just don't feel like running - so I don't. When Nick feels that way, he just puts the thoughts out of his mind and gets going. I think he has many motivations, but the funds that he is raising for United Way, the Y, the Umbrella and TEAM, Inc. certainly looms large as attested to by the more than $6,500 that has been pledged already.

I need to get in a plug for another aspect of Nick's training as part of his training regimen will include swimming in the The First Ever Housy One-Miler Swim to raise money for GRIFFIN HOSPITAL DEVELOPMENT FUND INC. on August 22. If you want to motivate Nick for that and contribute to the new Brest Wellness Center, click here.

Keep up the good work Nick!!

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Electronic Valley put Valley on the World Wide Web

Back in the early '90's the Valley was suffering a bit of an identity crisis due to the sudden demise of the local daily newspaper, The Evening Sentinel, and the only local radio station, WADS. Love them or hate them, everyone read the Sentinel and listened to WADS to keep up with the latest news in their hometown.The lack of a local daily and radio station was identified as a real community issue by the Healthy Valley 2000 project which was gearing up at that time. Healthy Valley was concerned with the quality of life of the community and saw the lack of truly local mass media as a detriment to the community.

There was quite a buzz about the same time being created by this new media - the World Wide Web - but not many had access to it. Here at Valley United Way we were very intrigued by the possibilities to better serve our constituents and had been experimenting with the forerunners of the Internet  in the form of Compuserve and an emerging AOL among other services, but they were slow and cumbersome to use as well as being expensive.

Then one day, I happened to notice that a local business man, John Joy of Oxford, was working with the Internet and offering community groups the opportunity to post information on his website for Oxford about services that might be available to residents. A quick call and suddenly United Way was up on his site and providing 25 word descriptions of the agencies that we funded.

As Healthy Valley was working on the media issue in the Valley, it became apparent that there was a real opportunity here to move the Valley forward through the use of new technologies. We couldn't afford to start a newspaper or a radio station, but we could afford to venture into the new electronic media. A committee was formed and quickly determined that we would opt for the full blown Internet rather than the competing BBS services that some communities were starting. That decision proved to be the correct one, and we recruited the artists at the Greenwich Workshop in Shelton to help with the design of that first page and the icons linking us to the information that we thought people would want to know about the Valley.

We created websites for all of the Valley towns and many of its nonprofits.We also created pages highlighting categories of interest that we thought cut across all of the towns. Interestingly, the site was not called the Electronic Valley. Originally, the site address was www.LNVvalley.org. If you enter that URL, it still works. The LNV stood for Lower Naugatuck Valley, but we soon found that people confused the L with an i and many had trouble finding the site. So we made it easier - but longer - with www.electronicvalley.org. (The invalley.org still works as well!)

This was entirely a volunteer project made possible by our technical guru John Joy whose computer expertise made the difficult seem easy. He did all of the back end work and hosted the site - he still does for the Electronic Valley data. Others helped with the content and creation of pages. Grants from local foundations allowed us to purchase computers which were given to local organizations such as libraries, nursing homes and other public groups that agreed to take the computers and allow the public in to use them. We provided software and classes for those who wanted to learn how to create content and put it on the Electronic Valley.

In very short order, the Valley had a very robust and informative web portal. Originally, all the pages had addressess such as Valley United Way's - www.lnvalley.org/vuw. Each city was www.lnavalley.org/cityname. Over time, we envisioned that groups would eventually get their own sites and we would simply link to them. United Way is now valleyunitedway.org, but we never forget that it was the Electronic Valley that allowed us the opportunity to get our feet wet and learn how to use this new media. At one point, United Way of America named our website the best in the country for United way's our size or smaller. Connecticut Magazine named the Electronic Valley one of the 50 best websites in Connecticut!

The Electronic Valley continues to thrive, and I was prompted to write this because they will be holding their annual meeting in the Lavietes Room at Valley United Way on August16 at 6:00 PM. They will conduct the normal business that you would expect in electing their board and officers, but they are also looking for a new generation of volunteers interested in helping to further develop the Valley's oldest and most comprehensive website. If you are interested, stop by. In the meantime, they have listed some volunteer opportunities on United Way's own unique web tool for volunteers - Volunteer Opportunities. Click here to take a look.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Allocations Committee Did Great Work!

I always tell people that it is very difficult to give money away, and they usually laugh. The reality is that it is difficult to give money away so that it can make a real difference in the community. Here at Valley United Way, we rely on the wisdom of the community in giving away money. Specifically, our Allocations Committee under the able leadership of Chairman Peter Galla is composed of volunteers drawn from all walks of life in the community. The one thing that they have in common is their love for the community and desire to see it always improve.

This year, we had twenty-eight volunteers who responded to our call for help. Some like Rich Bshara and Brian Sexton have been doing this for over twenty years while Anna Davidi, Tracy Hussey, Bill Maloney, and Joe Sedlock were the "rookies" in this year's process. The process actually began in April when area agencies began the preparation of their requests for funding. this is now an on-line system eliminating an enormous amount of paperwork. Agencies are required to submit quite a bit of financial and programmatic data justifying their requests for funding.

 In early May, the volunteers came in for a brief orientation and to receive their assignments. They worked in teams to review the information submitted by the agencies. Over the course of the next month they also had the opportunity to visit with the agencies to get a first hand look at the programs that the agencies run. This really helps to put a face on all the numbers that the agencies have submitted previously. After meeting with the agencies and reviewing the submitted applications, the volunteer submitted their own evaluations and their recommendations for funding.

At that point, the volunteers came back to meet in three panels to review and refine their recommendations. At that point, they did not know exactly how much money would be available for allocations and were making their recommendations strictly based on their evaluations. They then worked on their panels to bring their numbers in line with the number that United Way's finance committee would make available to them. A week later, the panel heads go together one last time to bring the panel recommendations in synch with the final number from the Finance Committee. They did an outstanding job, and a week later the numbers were presented to United Way's Board of Directors for action.

The Board of Directors has a great deal of respect for both the Allocations and Finance Committees and it is ultimately up to them to approve, reject or modify the recommendations. This year they adopted the recommendations as presented to them.

I want to thank everyone who served this year. It is not easy making the tough funding decisions made much tougher by the current economic uncertainty, but they did an outstanding job. They were fair and open minded and did their best to insure that the dollars invested in the agencies returns the greatest possible benefit to the community - and to the donors who make this all possible.

I want to personally thank everyone who helped this year. You can find the complete listing of all the volunteers and the allocations that they made this year at http://www.valleyunitedway.org/2010/allocations.htm.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Busy week brings Corporate Cup

 Last week was probably the busiest week that we have ever had with the Community Corporate Cup since it first started nineteen years ago. From the Run/Walk event on Wednesday to the Wiffleball and Bocce on Saturday, the weather was a constant, but not insurmountable challenge. The spirit and sportsmanship shown by all of the competitiors throughout was extraordinary.

We held our breath all day Wednesday hoping that the rain would hold off, but by the time the race started it was cold, windy and rainy. Many of our walkers and a couple of runners decided to stay dray and at-home, but 90 Corporate Cup participants joined over100 others running in the Valley YMCA 5K Sunset Race for a dash through Ansonia's Hilltop. Michael Zascicinghs of TEAM, Inc. was the first Corporate Cup participant across the line, but I think that it is safe to say that everyone who finished felt like a winner under the conditions. I ran in my first race in two years, and was quite pleased to win the 60 and over division. We had the CEO's from BIC (Mario Cuevas) and PerkinElmer (Dusty Tenney) in the race as well, and they both posted impressive times as did Bill Purcell, head of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce who zipped around the course with a 7:33 pace. The food after the race was outstanding, and it is one of the few races that I ever remember having pasta after the race. On such a deary night, it was just the thing to warm everyone up.


Saturday turned out a bit better weather wise though some light showers towards the end of the day threatened the conclusion of both Bocce and Wiffleball. It was quite a day as we had to lay out our six "ballparks" in time for the 9:00 am start. We would really like to thank Thaddeus Kurkowski of CDW-G for showing up early and lending a hand. TK competed in the Wiffleball tournament later in the morning. I also want to thank Bob Van Egghen for his help as our unofficial official during the Bocce tournament with his precise measurements! And it goes without saying that Chris Phipps and Sue Reilly of the Y did a great job in putting all the pieces together.


Both events turned out to be full of surprises and great comebacks. In Bocce, we were down to three teams competing following the suspension of the tournament due to darkness on May 25. It looked like it was going to be a quick exit for Kevin Dunn and Nora Espinel of BIC as they fell behind early in their losers bracket final with PerkinElmer. However, they managed to pick up four straight points in one round and go on to take that game before topping Mike Figueroa and Matt McKenney in two straight well played games to win the title.

The Wiffleball tournament was just as exciting as PerkinElmer came back from a crushing 7-6 loss to United Illuminating to rally through the losers bracket and top Griffin Hospital's 3 Amigos two straight for the title. Their one loss came in the bottom of the last inning when United Illuminating rallied from a 6-3 deficit with a walk-off grand slam homer to send PerkinElmer on their run through the losers bracket to the final. Ironically, one of Griffin's wins included Ryan Pereiras' walk-off grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the last inning for a 4-1 win that kept them alive in the winners bracket. PerkinElmer disposed of Griffin 3-0 in their first game, and had them 3-0 when Griffin staged an amazing 8 run rally to take an 8-3 lead. PerkinElmer was down to their last strike and trailing by 8-4 when they ran off eight straight runs to take a 12-8 lead. Griffin rallied for two runs in their last at bat, but it wasn't enough to keep PerkinElmer from winning their second straight Wiffleball tournament.

So now the competition is over, but we don't have a winner as yet. BIC stands precariously atop the standings with a 2.5 point lead. However, the Healthy Team results have yet to be added in, and it is always a high scoring event. Those results will not be announced until June 22 at the awards reception. Until then, I think we will just let the suspense build! We'll have a full story and all the results on June 22.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Being Good and Doing Good!

PerkinElmer at the 2009 race

When the Community Corporate Cup Run/Walk is held tonight, PerkinElmer's team will not only be working on their own health and well being, but also supporting the health of the enitre community. They are in the thick of the hunt for a fourth straight Community Corporate Cup title, and they have over 60 employees either running or walking in tonight's event making them the largest single group involved. What really makes them different than any other group this year is that they will also be generating funds for Griffin Hospital's Breast Wellness Center. PerkinElmer will be donating $20 for every employee that will be walking and $30 for every employee who will be running. Just doing some very quick math, it appears that they will raise approximately $1,600 for the Center. On top of that, some of the runners are soliciting individual pledges in support of their efforts.

The Community Corporate Cup is an incredible event that brings together local businesses in the pursuit of a healthier life style, community spirit and company morale through a varitey of competitive athletics centered on the Healthy Team competition. One of the great developments has been the incredibly good sportsmanship shown by all of the competitiors. PerkinElmer's effort tonight adds a whole new dimension to ways to do good while also being good to yourself, and we congratulate them on both.

We wish them well along with all of the other runners and walkers who will be involved tonight. Let's hope that the rain holds off. By the way, we are still looking for volunteers to help with the race tonight. If you are interested, give Sue Reilly a call at the Y - 203 736-1435.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

VSAAC Turns Twenty

This morning I attended the Valley Substance Abuse Action Council's 20th Anniversary Celebration - and it doesn't seem possible that it is twenty years since its founding. United Way played a major role in the start of VSAAC as a result of a Government Breakfast hosted by United Way back in 1990. The name of our speaker that day escapes me, but he was the state commissioner in charges of the state's substance abuse programs at the time.He came to the breakfast at the old Rapp's Restaurant (now John J. Sullivan's) in Ansonia to talk about a new state effort aimed at prevention rather than treatment.

 The state had just instituted funding for 13 programs based on a very successful model called RYSAP in Bridgeport. The concept was to form Regional Action Councils (RACs) which would be coalitions of community leaders with heavy youth involvement in an effort to deal with substance abuse issues. The Valley was not one of the 13 areas for which funding had been implemented. However, his speech struck a cord with those in the room that day, and shortly thereafter we formed a coalition of those interested int he problem to see if the concept would work here in the Valley.

Within a few weeks, our committee held a full day community retreat at the United Illuminating in Shelton involving nearly 100 people including mayors, state legislators, superintendents of schools, principals, teachers, police and many, many students. There was a sense of urgency and commitment in the room that day that drew the attention of the state. Though money had been allocated for the 13 other communities in the state, not much had been accomplished in many of them. The state was so impressed by what had already taken place in the Valley and the cooperation that was so evident in the room, that they went back and found the money to allow the Valley to create its own RAC - now known as VSAAC.

For the first few months, it was actually based in our office in the Ansonia Copper and Brass building in Ansonia and we served as host and fiduciary for them until they got their own 501 c 3 nonprofit status. They eventually moved to St. Joseph's in Shelton thanks to the support of Father Robert Weiss who served as Chairman of the Board. Years later, they came under the umbrella of the Birmingham Group where they continue to flourish today.

I don't have time or space to name all of the wonderful people who were involved with starting VSAAC and ensuring its future - maybe another day. For now - Happy 20th Birthday.


For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Business Showcase Brings Back Old Friends

 I stopped in this morning at the Business Showcase presented by area Chambers of Commerce including our own Greater Valley Chamber under the very able leadership of my friend Bill Purcell. The keynote speaker was Charles Monagan, editor of Connecticut Magazine. He did a great job of talking about the great quality of life and history that we have here in Connecticut. Even in these difficult economic times, Connecticut is a special place, and he gave many great examples.

Bill mentioned that this is his tenth year in the Valley, and he talked about all the places that he has had a chance to visit within the state of Connecticut since he first arrived. I know people who have lived in Connecticut their whole lives (including myself) who have not seen as many state attractions as Bill.

As I wandered the hall looking at the exhibits, I ran across John Voket. John worked for a variety of local newspapers in the Valley before moving on to become editor of the Newtown Bee. He also works for WPLR radio where he produces the award winning public affairs program For the People. John has featured many stories about the Valley in the past, and we ended up doing a quick interview highlighting some of the interactions between the business and nonprofit communities and how important each is to the other. That interview may be heard some time in the future. It was great seeing John again and especially ironic that just last night at the bocce tournament, his name came up in conversation and I noted that I hadn't seen John in a while.

I want to congratulate the Chambers for another successful Showcase once again proving the value of networking and for giving me the opportunity to renew acquaintances with an old friend.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

All America City - 10 years ago this year

It's hard to believe that we are approaching the tenth anniversary of the Valley's winning the coveted All America City award from the National Civic League. A very diverse group of Valley citizens traveled to Louisville, Kentucky as one of 30 communities large and small from all over the country who had been selected as finalists to compete for one of ten awards. Valley United Way was one of the groups involved in putting this together along with the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Valley Council for Health & Human Services and its Healthy Valley 2000 Project among others.

According to the National Civic League, the "All-America City Award is America's original and most prestigious community recognition award". The first awards were made in 1949, and more than 500 communities have been recognized for their outstanding work in overcoming local challenges. Nationally syndicated columnist Neil Pierce who was a judge in 2000 said in his column following the event that he had been pleased to have had the opportunity to see what was "cutting-edge" in communities across the country dealing with issues of local importance and went on to single out the Naugatuck River Valley for its collabortive work.

The award was the culmination of the work of many groups in the Valley, but I'd like to single out Healthy Valley 2000 for some special recognition. That project is now simply called Healthy Valley, and it has been scaled back quite a bit. However back in the mid '90's it was a robust "virtual" organization with members drawn from all walks of life in the community. It involved people who had an interest in enhancing the quality of life of the Valley. It's original website with a description of all its programs can still be found by clicking  http://valleycouncil.org/healthy/. Bill Powanda of Griffin Hospital was a driving force behind Healthy Valley, and he was the one who first suggested that the Valley go after the All America City award. In 1999, we were selected as a finalist and had a wonderful time in Philadelphis, but were crushed when we did not become one of the selected ten.

However a review of our performance from the Ntional Civic League gave us an understanding of just how close we had come and after getting over the initial disappointment, we decided to apply again. On the application, you have to tell the story of your community and its accomplishments and how it meets its challenges. Being a finalist one year does not mean anything for your next application, but we had a great story to tell, and we were selected as finalists agin in 2000!

From there, everything became a blur as we had to assemble the delegation, recruit sponsors, make travel arrangement and then take Louisville by storm to tell the amazing story of one of the most resilient local communities in the United States. The key part of the process would be a 10 minute stage presentation before the panel of nationally recognized experts who served as judges. Luckily, we had Liz Kennard and Gary Scarpa producing our presentation, and it was extraordinary. Though our rehersals had left something to be desired, it all came together when the delegation marched into the hall chanting, "We are the Valley, the mighty, mighty Valley" as suggested by delegate Diane Stroman. The presentation which highlighted our unique history and our approach to solving community problems went off without a hitch, and so did the question and answer session that followed. All 30 delegations made similar presentations in an effort to support their cause.

Later that night, there was a Civic Action Fair where each delegation had a booth which also highlighted each communities uniqueness. To say that our booth was spectacular would be an understatement. We were mobbed all night telling the story of the Valley and passing out samples of items produced here in the Valley. What made the night even more special was a presentation on the main stage by the Ansonia High School Gospel Choir. Students from the Youth Connection had already shown the musical talents of Valley students during the formal presentation earlier in the day. However, the Choir was a show stopper. Their high energy performance literally stopped people in their tracks throughout the hall.

Sitting around waiting for the final night's session was nerve wracking, but there was both excitement and confidence in the delegation as we streamed back into the main hall along with the 29 other delegations to await the final verdict. It had all the excitement of a national presidential convention as the room rocked to loud music and a multi-media display from the week's activities. The tension rose as the selection of the 10 winners was announced until we finally heard the Valley announced as one of the ten winners. It was both a feeling of exhiliration and relief knowing that all the hard work had paid off and that the rest of America would now know and confirm what a special place the Valley is.

It was almost ironic that when we strted the Healthy Valley Project in 1994, we had called it Healthy Valley 2000, and in 2000 the effort had culminated in an All America City Award! That was one of my proudest moments in my years at United Way as we were an important contributer and partner in the achivement. It was - and is - something that everyone in the Valley can continue to be proud of. It's also a reminder of the good things that can happen when we work together to solve our problems.

Our All America City website still exists. Though some of the links are now broken and some of the videos no longer work (there was no YouTube in 2000!!), you can still visit the site http://electronicvalley.org/allamerica/ and relive one of the great moments in Valley history.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at http://www.valleyunitedway.org/.

Food Drive Comes to You!

Saturday is the day for one of the biggest single day food drives in the entire country as the National Association of Letter Carriers conducts its annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive. This has got to be one of the easiest ways ever to help alleviate hunger in our community as this is the food drive that comes to you! Thanks to the letter carriers, you don't even have to leave your house to participate. Simply leave your non-perishable (no glass please) food item next to your mailbox, and the letter carriers will handle the rest. They will pick it up and then make a special delivery to food banks throughout the Valley to immediately get that food into the distribution pipeline.

Here at Valley United Way, we are proud to have been partners with our local letter carriers from the very first year of this innovative effort. We are especially pleased that our Youth Leadership Program members have been active volunteers in helping with the food collection at various sites where the letter carriers drop the food including the Spooner House which is also the Valley Food Bank.

So take a minute and look around the house today and plan to make your donation of food right at your own residence. It will make an immediate difference here in the Valley.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Annual Meeting & Awards Dinner is Coming Soon

The 42nd Annual Meeting & Awards Dinner is just around the corner (April 27), and we have a number of people that we need to thank for helping us to get everything in place for a great night to celebrate another year of serving the community. Let me start by acknowledging Prudential Annuities for serving as the main sponsor for this year's event. Prudential needs no introduction, but we are very pleased to have them step forward to serve as the main sponsor for the dinner. They are a very close neighbor here in the Towers complex in Shelton, and we are pleased that they have chosen to support this landmark community event.

They are joined by a number of other area businesses who are Table Sponsors. They include Fletcher Thompson, Gexpro, Iroquois Gas Transmission Systems, Naugatuck Savings Bank, Real Estate Two, BIC, Newtown Savings Bank, Blakeman Consturction and Pitney Bowes.We are extremely grateful for all their support.

One of the highlights of the dinner will be the distribution of our 2009 Annual Report. There is a lot of time and effort that goes into the report, and we were very fortunate to have the support of the W.E. Bassett Company in putting this year's report together. They allowed John DeGant to provide his design and graphical expertise in handling the layout for this year's report, and we think that you will be very pleased when you get your copy.

I also want to thank Newman & Company's Kellie Newman who designed the invitation to the dinner. If you didn't receive one in the mail, you can click here to get the on-line version and make your reservation.

Lastly, I also want to thank our good friends at Fletcher Thompson, Eric Monks and Tim McGee who Laurel has kept quite busy putting together signs, table cards and many other graphics that you will see at the dinner.

Everything is now in place and we look forward to an evening where we celebrate the achievements of the past year and honor those who have contributed to our successes.

For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Valley United Way and Social Media

Anyone who follows Valley United Way knows that we have been leaders in the use of electronic media to spread the word about everything that we do. In the "pre-Internet age", we were one of the United Ways experimenting with what passed for electronic media at the time - Compuserve. We then became the first United Way in Connecticut and one of the first in the country to actually have a website, and when United Way of America gave awards for such things, our web site was named best in the country for United Ways our size or smaller. Our original website with its 25 word descriptions of the agencies we funded became the forerunner of the Valley's community website - The Electronic Valley.

Long before the term social media became the rage, we were working with the Valley Council for Health & Human Services to foster better communications through electronic media by promoting the use of e-mail, mailing lists and electronic groups. There was no Facebook, MySpace or Twitter back then. In fact there was no Google or Yahoo, but we did have e-Groups, and the Valley Council was one of the first to use such a tool. All of those tools helped to create a very tightly integrated social service network here in the Valley that is remarkable in its ability to cooperate, share information and ideas and collaborate where appropriate. It has been especially helpful in being able to swiftly respond to community needs when called upon such as the tragic Latex Foam fire.

Keeping up with the rapid advances in technology is always a challenge, but for a small United Way, we continue to respond to that challenge - and opportunity to better serve our supporters and the general community. Along with the United Way in Hartford, we helped pioneer the concept of an on-line volunteer matching system (Volunteer Solutions) whereby our Volunteer Center is always open. We now do all of our allocations and special needs grants through an on-line process called e-Cimpact making our process virtually paperless for agencies and volunteers. Some of our campaigns are also paperless where companies choose to use our electronic campaign software instead of the traditional paper pledge card.

In addition to following all the latest information on our website which has now grown to over 35,000 files, you can also subscribe to one of our electronic newsletters, follow us on Twitter, watch us on YouTube, become a fan or friend on Facebook, or even subscribe to have this blog sent to you immediately.

Our goal is to build a strong relationship with our supporters by providing information and service whenever, wherever, and  however it is wanted. We hope that you find it helpful.





For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Monday morning ramblings - traffic, early childhood & leadership

 Monday morning - and the start of another week. For me, the day started with gridlock in the center of Derby because of traffic problems caused by backups on Route 8 and an accident on Elizabeth Street that created a monumental traffic jam. Luckily, I was on my way to a meeting of the Valley Early Childhood Task Force which was being held at the Parent Child Resource Center next to the Parking Garage.One person took 45 minutes to get from the area of St. Michael's Church to the meeting!

It was worth the hassle as the Committee reviewed the impressive work that it has done in the last couple of years to advance the cause of early childhood education in the Valley. The task force was one of the first committees of the Valley Council for Health & Human Services, but it really took on a much larger role in supporting early childhood education issues when the Graustein Memorial Fund started doing Discovery grants to individual cities. Originally Ansonia and Shelton received grants and then Derby joined the fold. When the Fund also offered regional Discovery grants, the Valley was well positioned because the Task Force was already a regional group and the individual cities are part of it. On top of that, Seymour was part of the Task Force even though Seymour was not eligible for a city grant. However, they did become part of the Regional Discovery grant.

The partnership between the individual towns and the the regional collaborative has been mutually beneficial to all. Training has been provided for early childhood providers, a bridge has been built between those providers and the school systems to ensure a smooth transition to kindergarten and home care childhood providers and institutional day care providers have a greater appreciation for each others role in working with our pre-school population. Parent training has also been provided, resources guides developed and a website is now in place as well - PreschoolTools.org. Earlier this month they coordinated the Read Across America program in area schools and in April they will host the Fourth Annual Play and Learn Fair at Warsaw Park.

United Way is pleased not only to have served as the fiduciary agent, but also as a funder and partner in this effort.

When I finally got to the office, I picked up the Connecticut Post to find a great article about one of our recent Special Needs Grants and the difference it is making in the lives of people served by the Parent Child Resource Center. You can read the full article here. It's a great story, but also a sad commentary on the difficult situations that many people in the Valley find themselves in at the moment.

Another uplifting story took place on Saturday with our new Leadership Greater Valley Alumni Group. The Leadership Program has been around for more than a decade, but the Leadership Alumni Group met just recently to establish themselves, and they wasted little time in making a difference. On Saturday, a number of the graduates made their way to the Spooner House where they made lunch for the residents and found time to socialize with them. One of the highlights was Greater Valley Chamber President (and a man of many, many taletns!) Bill Purcell playing the piano for everyone.

All in all, for a Monday that started in gridlock, it is turning out to be filled with a lot of good news. Let's hope the rest of the week continues the same way!


For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

“If you're lucky enough to be Irish, then you're lucky enough.”

 I couldn't let this day go by without wishing all of our friends and supporters a very Happy St. Patrick's Day. Being of Irish descent myself (and even having Irish citizenship), I am very proud of my heritage as every person should be of theirs. As everyone knows, I'm addicted to just about everything Irish but today is the one day when everyone puts up with me and even joins in the celebration of the venerable Saint from the Ould Sod.

The celebration is actually quite different here than it is in Ireland where the day has traditionally centered on the Church's celebration of the Patron Saint of Ireland and the public holiday. Here in the U.S. it has evolved into a celebration of all things Irish and their remarkable achievements in all aspects of life in America.Though not a public holiday, everyone joins in the fun of a one day a year celebration of Ireland.

So whether you are wearing green today and dining on corned beef and cabbage or not, I want to wish you a very Happy St. Patrick's Day.


May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
The sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.


For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.