The United Way of Bruce Grey has announced its campaign total for 2009.
550 thousand dollars was raised in the past year for the organization that provides funding to various community support organizations and programs.
Executive Director Francesca Dobbyn says it’s tremendous accomplishment to have the final total increase by over 200 thousand dollars from last year — especially when manufacturing jobs have been lost locally.
Employees at the Hobart plant in Owen Sound — where there have been layoffs, raised 40 thousand dollars.
The announcement was made at the Bruce Power Visitor Centre near Tiverton — and for a good reason.
Employees at the site have raised over 290 thousand dollars alone.
CEO Duncan Hawthorne says it’s significant contribution — but they have a lot of employees — and he believes they recognize how significant the company is in the community.
Bruce Power revamped its payroll deduction program for the United Way in 2009, after years of only mild support for employees.
The slogan adopted was “a dollar a day for the United Way.”
The Power Workers Union and Society of Energy Professionals at Bruce Power each contributed 10 thousand dollars.
One of the more unique staff donations came from a group of employees who wanted to disperse of a sizeable cash float they had accumulated over the years in their coffee fund.
Projects employee Previn Nema says many of the original coffee club members no longer work at Bruce Power so it would not have been fair to divide the money among the current employees, so they decided to give the 890 dollars to the United Way instead.
In 2009, the United Way of Grey-Bruce has provided over 17 hundred school backpacks for low income children, funded 20 programs run by 19 agencies, and spent 67 thousand dollars to help people pay their utility bills.