United Way Hastings & Prince Edward Campaign On Track, But Needs Are High

The United Way Hastings & Prince Edward 65th Annual campaign is closing in on 40% of the $2,000,000 goal announced mid September.

Hilary Murphy, Director of Business Development at TaskForce Engineering is this years Campaign Cabinet Chair.  “The Cabinet has been connecting with the community in a variety of ways to encourage support of the campaign—and the community is responding.  This is truly a united effort” says Murphy.  Dozens of volunteers throughout the region are holding events and payroll deduction campaigns for employees in their respective workplaces.

Typically, United Way HPE provides funding to over 50 local agencies through their campaign; on Friday the organization closed its annual application process for local agencies to apply for those funds. “Requests from our local not for profit sector are almost $500,000 higher than we were able to allocate last year,” says Brandi Hodge, Executive Director. “This is a trend we’ve seen for two years in a row now—the need is higher than ever before .  The fall-out of the pandemic along with inflationary stresses are making life really hard for many.  This campaign needs to be successful to keep supports in place for those needing them most.”

Hodge explains, “It’s still too early to accurately predict the end result of the campaign but current projections show that it will be close – so far we are tracking on par with last year”  Hodge adds, “the needs are remarkably high—probably  higher than I’ve ever seen before.  Every single dollar raised matters.  If someone in the community gave last year, we hope they’ll consider giving again. For new donors, any gift of $500 or more is eligible to be matched by the Maurice and Marilyn Rollins Foundation—significantly increasing the positive impact on the community.“

United Way HPE’s third annual Virtual Auction event presented by TaskForce Engineering will run from November 14th – 21st—start your holiday shopping early while also supporting your community —the auction features a little something for everyone.  To bid please go to www.unitedwayhpe.ca/virtualauction2022.

This fundraising campaign will continue until January 31, 2022. Community members wishing to donate can do so by contacting the UWHPE office at 613.962.9531 or unitedwayhpe.ca/donate/.