Sponsored Content: Celebrating 70 years of impact: Join United Way's mission to support our community

What began as a community fund in 1954 has evolved into a powerful organization that not only connects people with resources but fills gaps by creating life-changing programs. As we begin our 70th year, it’s hard to imagine this community without United Way of Southeast Missouri making it stronger for seven decades.

• Many programs never would have launched, like First Call For Help, which we started in 1999 and assists more than 2,000 people annually.

• Significantly fewer students would have graduated if not for our support of education at every level, including Read to Succeed to support early literacy and 10 years of asking our community to help Stuff the Bus with school supplies.

• The 33,000 people our network helps every year and the nearly 2,000 helped by 211 would continue to struggle without the support of our funding, our volunteers, and the power of our network.

• Many local not-for-profits would not have received our funding, and some might not exist without our continued support.

United Way is more than one organization. We are an influential, powerful network of community services. Together we help the underserved, the vulnerable, and our neighbors at greatest risk. Although we are a proud member of the largest privately funded not-for-profit in the world, we are a nimble organization that springs into action to help our neighbors, as we have by:

• Immediately collecting funds to help Perryville, Cape Girardeau and Bollinger County victims of floods and tornadoes;

• Raising funds to shelter our homeless during life-threatening winter weather;

• Providing air conditioners to families and seniors when temperatures soar.

Still, we invest the bulk of our funds in partners and programs that work together to eliminate what creates vulnerability and need in the first place. If a program doesn’t exist to meet a need, we create one, as we did with United We Work, put into motion at the end of 2023.

United We Work has helped 40-plus area employers by providing nearly 1,000-plus rides to 50-plus employees.

But our efforts don’t stop at simply providing critical transportation. Participants in United We Work must meet with a banking partner to develop a budget and create a plan to save for future transportation needs. This way they can pay half the cost of transportation in their second month in the program and be prepared to pay it in full by month three. Two participants developed the budgeting knowledge and discipline they needed to buy their own car!

If you have never donated to United Way of Southeast Missouri, we hope this will be the year you choose to support our work. If you have been supporting us through the years, thank you!

We work for our community with help from our community. Our donors are funding programs that change lives. Some of the people we have helped even say we have saved their lives. Rarely does just one circumstance put a family in need. And rarely can just one organization provide all that is needed. That is why our community needs a strong United Way.

Help us celebrate our 70th birthday!

• Attend our party from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 9 at the Eagles Club. Our Carnival for Grownups will have midway games, a magician, mouse races, fair food, and we’re most excited about debuting a new look when we cut the cake at 7:30 p.m.

• Give a birthday gift in any multiple of seven. Can you give $70 or $700? Just think how much we could help if everyone reading this gave at least $7!

• Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a monthly email of our events and accomplishments.

• Watch our 2024 campaign video or visit our website at www.unitedwayofsemo.org for all of the above.

Thank you for helping us help others for 70 years. Here’s to 170 more!