United Way logo (Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News)United Way logo (Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News)
Chatham

Touchdown Breakfast Wraps Up Fundraising Campaign

The United Way of Chatham-Kent will be making a special announcement about its 2017 campaign at a community event on Thursday.

The United Way of Chatham-Kent's Touchdown Breakfast is a free event that is open to members of the community. The breakfast will be held on Thursday from 8am to 9:30am at Links of Kent on 120 Indian Creek Rd. W in Chatham.

Director of Resource Development Tom Slager says the event will celebrate the United Way of Chatham-Kent's 2017 fundraising campaign coming to a close with a final announcement.

"It's a celebration of our achievement of the amount that we've raised this year. It's also a chance to say thank you to so many of our donors and our volunteers that have helped raise that money over the course of the year," says Slager.

Slager says the goal of 2017 campaign, which was announced in September, is $1,725,000.

"Regardless of where the number ends up, it's still a very massive amount of money that gets raised and it will still go back to this community and help probably 35,000 to 40,000 people next year...so we're very excited about that," says Slager.

If you have not already contributed to the 2017 campaign, it is not too late to have your donation counted toward this announcement. More information about how to give can be found on the campaign website.

According to a news release, there will also be presentations from local residents and families who were featured in the United Way of Chatham-Kent's four campaign videos: Hope, Strength, Joy, and Belonging.

"We've also got a couple of nice little surprises for the community. Some of the people that have helped us out are going to be rewarded in some different ways this year," says Slager.

All residents interested in attending Thursday's event are asked to please RSVP to Tom Slager via email at tom@uwock.ca or by calling 519-354-0430 as space is limited.

Slager says the organization is already gathering ideas for the 2018 campaign.

"The planning is always on-going. As we're even doing the campaign, we're always seeing some things that are working really well and some things that aren't. We're always filing things away and starting to think next year at this time maybe we should be doing this or that...so that's exactly what's going to happen here. We'll put this one to bed on [Thursday] and celebrate it and we'll be starting to plan immediately for the next year," says Slager.

Slager says this year's campaign will likely kick off during late August or early September.

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