Great People

By Addie Nardi
Director of Resource Development

Sometimes my job wears on me.

I am always asking someone for something. I am pretty sure people hide from me when I come around now. I can almost read their mind, ‘Here comes that hyper chick from United Way. Quick, hide before she asks you for something. Whatever you do, DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!’

I sound a little paranoid… right? Right? RIGHT?!?!

The awesome part of having a job where I get to come into contact with thousands of people throughout the year, though, is that I have thousands of opportunities to meet people who can pull me out of that funk. I would say that I have thousands of opportunities to meet people who can inspire me in some way.

To be honest, I meet some pretty incredible people; I’d argue that I meet the best that Washington County has to offer. Whether they are company CEO’s, department manager’s, teachers, nurses, doctor’s, teenagers, anyone! I think that through their fundraising efforts, I’ve even met the best residents of our three state prisons.
There is no great secret to running a stellar company campaign. All you need is an engaged Employee Campaign Coordinator and strong support from the BOSS (not Bruce Springsteen). I can give you countless examples of where that line-up has worked!

This week, probably when I most needed it, has given me plenty of opportunities to remember how awesome these opportunities are.

Yesterday, we judged the Chili Cook-off competition at the City of Hagerstown. ECC Dani Frye puts this together as an additional fundraiser to her campaign. When we asked her to run the United Way campaign, she took it on with what I have learned is her typical enthusiasm, creativity and energy. She gets an amazing amount of items to give away for raffles and the chili cook-off had a ton of people show up (for the record, 3 out of 4 United Way judges voted Bruce Zimmerman’s Diesel Fuel Chili as the winner, it was the best chili I’ve ever had in my entire life). I always feel energized after being around her.

I have seen the woman who runs the campaign for Washington County Government, Kathy Kroboth, grow and try out a LOT of new things with us United Way gals. Including public speaking AND spinning. Do you know that she rallied County Government employees to give almost $100,000 to United Way and Community Health Charities last year? And she felt bad she couldn’t do more! I have witnessed two presentations that she has given this week and she is incredibly articulate and passionate about United Way. I can’t help but hug her every time I see her.

One of Kathy’s presentations was at the Water Quality department this morning. The director of that department, Dan DiVito, asked us to come out because he has decided that he wants 100% participation from his staff this year. I know that his support of us will make a difference in that department, but his words about why he supports United Way and how any of us, at any time, could find ourselves benefitting from a United Way agency, will resonate far longer.

Four years ago, we approached John Williams, the owner of Jamison Door, and asked him to help us rejuvenate his campaign. For the past four years, on the day that we kick off his campaign, he comes to every presentation and tells his employees how proud he is of how supportive his employees are of our community. He also mentions how many different ways you can support a community and encourages his employees to help Jamison Door move up on the donor scale.

The fact that I could go on with hundreds of other examples of people I come across is a strong testament to the giving spirit in our community. But alas, I’m already well over my ‘350-word limit’ and have to run off to another meeting. So I just wanted to share a few examples to show you how lucky I am to come across these people every day.

Thank you for all of your support of our community. And I promise to try to keep my ‘asks’ to a minimum when I see you. O.k., that probably won’t happen. But I promise to at least be really nice about my asking and I'll try to throw in a joke!