Preparing meals on The Canteen

The call came in on the afternoon of June 28. The Delaware River was moving rapidly to flood stage, and The Island District was once again facing the prospect of being under several feet of water. Neighbors began helping neighbors for what had become an annual ritual - move everything in your home to higher ground - for the third time since the fall of 2004.

Later that same afternoon, The Salvation Army called United Way of Greater Mercer County's President and CEO, Craig Lafferty. Captain Rose Balcom explained that extra help would be needed if the flooding was as bad as predicted. Captain Balcom asked, "Would United Way staff and volunteers be available to assist The Salvation Army in feeding and caring for people impacted by the impending flood?" Calls were quickly placed to volunteers, and staff were assembled to work out a schedule. Floods have a timetable all of their own, and the fact that a long holiday weekend was coming up didn't change the fact that flood waters would some be inundating the city of Trenton.

All was set. United Way staff and volunteers were on standby for the call to join in the disaster relief efforts that would be undertaken when the flood hit. The Salvation Army's mobile kitchen was deployed to the immediate vicinity of The Island District in Trenton. The floodwaters rose to near record heights. Finally the Delaware River crested late on the afternoon of June 30.

The Salvation Army began its work immediately, feeding police and fire personnel deployed to protect the property of the flood victims. Then the families and owners began to return to the neighborhood. The call came in early on the morning of July 2. Captain Chuck Balcom called Craig Lafferty at his home to ask for assistance. Mr. Lafferty arrived on the scene Sunday afternoon at about 1:00 p.m. He was available for the duration of the flood, and his executive assistant was available starting Monday July 3. The Chairman of the Board, Eugene Marsh, was able to help on Monday as well.

More staff joined the effort on Wednesday July 5 and continued helping through the evening of July 6. Cleaning kits were handed out. Bleach and paper towels went fast. Food needed to be purchased and prepared. Hungry residents needed to be fed, and first responders were working 12 and 16-hour days.

Mornings started at 6:00 a.m. with the mobile kitchen cooking breakfast. Fried egg sandwiches were the order of the day. "Would you like that with pork-roll, turkey bacon or ham?" was asked repeated. Hungry people came; breakfast went from 7:00 a.m. to nearly 9:45 a.m. Then it was time to clean up breakfast and prepare for the task of fixing lunch. The familiar phrase at lunch became "white or wheat bread?" for your sandwich - turkey, chicken salad, bologna, or ham"? How about a "PBJ" for the little one? Lunch ran from about noon until 2:30 p.m. And then it was time to think about fixing supper. What would supper be? Something hot and nutritious; maybe spaghetti or hamburger and hot dogs grilled out? What about getting something from Olive Garden?

In the end, everyone ate well. Nothing fancy; just good solid food. And when it was done, everyone was grateful. The residents because someone cared. The police and fire personnel because we made it a little easier for them. The Salvation Army because they could count on their friends at United Way. And the staff at United Way because we had the opportunity to once again demonstrate what matters!

Craig E. Lafferty

Thank you! The 2005/2006 annual campaign was concluded with a resounding success on May 2. Nearly 80 people gathered at The Conference Center - Mercer County Community College on a warm spring evening to hear and see the results of the community's support for United Way's work. Despite the unprecedented challenges caused by three hurricanes and the aftershock impact on energy prices, United Way's supporters rallied to raise more than $9.25 million.

We also elected three new members to the Board of Trustees that evening - Deborah Shepherd from Merrill Lynch, Catherine Geddis from Princeton University, and Matthew Murphy from Ortho-McNeil Janssen Pharmaceutical. Additionally, we elected six Trustees who are serving their second or third three-year term on the Board - Eugene Marsh, Elaine Moorin, Craig Pasko, Sheila Servis, and Stephen Shueh.

At the Annual Meeting the Officers for 2006/2007 were also elected - Eugene Marsh - Chairman of the Board, Michael J. Conlan - Vice Chairman and Chairman Elect, Matthew Graglia - Treasurer, Stephen Shueh - Corporate Secretary, and Scott Puro - Corporate Counsel.

With spring drawing to a close and summer moving into full swing, our offices are working with Mercer County - Department of Human Services and the Office on Aging to help medically frail elderly people to survive summer with the help of a room air-conditioner. The Medi-Cool program was first launched in the summer of 2005 and proved to be an overwhelming success. More than 80 people with medical conditions aggravated by summer heat and humidity received a life sustaining air-conditioner. If you know of someone who would benefit for this program, please ask them to contact United Way at 609.896.1912.

Finally, United Way is collecting new book-bags for low-income children and families. This is the fifth annual book-bag drive. More than 400 children benefited from this drive last year and the number of families seeking help is even higher this summer. If you are able to help, contact Patrick Cacacie at 609.637.4910 or at patrick.cacacie@uwgmc.org.

Have a safe and enjoyable summer. Take a sometime to rest and have some fun. Enjoy the wonders that the Garden State has to offer.

See you in the Fall.

With the sun beating down and the humidity way up, what better way to kick off summer then eating ice cream! On June 22, UWGMC and Cold Stone Creamery Mercer Mall teamed up for an amazing community fundraiser. The crowd was entertained by the sounds of Thursday Night Jazz, Miss Amy and Her Big Kids Band, and The Zone. Children of all ages enjoyed face painting, balloon sculpting as well as magic and games.

Gene Marsh, UWGMC's Board Chairman was behind the granite stone learning to make the best ice cream creations on the planet. Other "Celebrity Scoopers" included Mayor Michael Powers from Lawrence Township and Mayor Bob Patten from Hightstown Borough.

As the night wore on and the ice cream line continued to grow, Craig Lafferty, CEO of UWGMC said, "It was really great to see how many people turned out with their children to enjoy an afternoon of fun and some good old fashioned ice cream eating. Who would have thought that spending time with the kids could do so much good for the community?"

(Editor's note - The money raised at this event was used to help feed the residents of The Island District in Trenton impacted by the flooding just a few days later.)

United Way of Greater Mercer County (UWGMC) is pleased to announce the receipt of a grant award from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in the amount of $338,605. This grant will support our community impact work over the course of this fiscal year in the areas of Helping Children Succeed, Fostering Self-Sufficiency, Caring for Seniors and People with Disabilities, and Accessing Healthcare.

This partnership allows UWGMC to fund more critical services in Mercer County, such as the Mobile Medical Van of St. Francis, one of our local hospitals, which provides health screenings, immunizations, medication, health education, and referral services to indigent and working poor people in their own neighborhoods. In addition, UWGMC is helping to fill the transportation gap by providing scholarships for free rides for low-income seniors and people with disabilities through the Greater Mercer ITN (Independent Transportation Network), a program of the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association.

Everyone talks about the future - what will it look like - how will it be different than the past - what is my role in making the future?

A group called Sustainable Lawrence is tackling each of the questions and many more today in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. Sustainable Lawrence is a large group of residents, businesses, congregations, and other organizations dedicated to creating a sustainable community. The organization encourages people and institutions of Lawrence Township to cooperatively adopt fundamental principles of sustainability and to develop policies and practices that fulfill those principles. By way of example, there are several thing that each of can do to create a sustainable future:

1. reduce our community's fossil fuel dependence and wasteful us of scarce metals and materials;
   
2. reduce our community's dependence on harmful chemicals and wasteful use of synthetic substances;
   
3. minimize our community's encroachment upon nature (e.g., land, water, wildlife, forests, soil, ecosystems); and
   
4. meet human needs fairly and efficiently.

For more about this future oriented program, please visit:
www.sustainablelawrence.org or call 609.895.1629.

The United Way of Greater Mercer County is working with the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey's Disaster Preparedness Network to provide the Fourth Annual Disaster Preparedness Conference, The Day After... Getting Back to Business on Wednesday October 11 at the National Conference Center at the Holiday Inn of East Windsor, (formerly the Ramada Inn). The event's focus this year is on the recovery task after a natural or man made crisis event.

This is the second year of the partnership that also includes the United Ways of Central Jersey and Hunterdon County, and the principal Chambers of Commerce from Hunterdon, Mercer and Middlesex counties. A new member this year is the Insurance Council of New Jersey. In the morning, workshops will focus on specialized training experiences for small businesses, non profit social service organizations and school systems. In the afternoon, attendees will have the opportunity to meet and interact with Emergency Management Coordinators and other emergency response staff from those same counties.

Principal speakers for the day will begin with welcome and encouragement from Governor Jon Corzine, then Richard Cañas, Homeland Security Director, will assess current threats and readiness in the State. Highlighting the day after the luncheon will be a panel of representatives from the Gulf Coast to talk about their recovery challenge.

The panel will most likely interact with an author whose forthcoming book is on the Katrina experience. Additional speakers may be scheduled during the day.

Full cost registration for the day is $150.00 including lunch; a reduced rate for not-for-profit and governmental entities, including schools, is $120. Additional discounts and an early registration bonus could bring the price down to just $95.00

Craig Lafferty, representing the United Way on the Conference Planning Committee feels the whole day will be beneficial as was last year's event. Craig said: "I am really looking forward to hearing about the Hurricane Katrina experience first hand from some who are still living it day to day. That should be a very special part of an already special day!"

Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness joined the Greater Trenton Earned Income Tax Credit Asset Building Coalition to expand the EITC campaign across Mercer County. Mercer Alliance's role included outreach, building partnerships with banks, public awareness and training for front-line caseworkers. Mercer Alliance trained 159 caseworkers on EITC and provided additional IRS training for 36 volunteer tax preparers to support partner tax sites at senior centers, community centers, and nonprofit organization locations in Trenton, Princeton, Ewing, East Windsor, Hamilton and Hightstown.

The preliminary data from Greater Trenton Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign partners' sites shows a large increase of EITC and CTC filings and total refunds. For the 2005 income tax year there were 1,329 filers, an increase of 1976% over the 2004 income tax year. Mercer County families filing for EITC on the 2005 income tax year received over $11,250,000 in the first three months of the tax season, an increase of 53% over the 2004 income tax year.

Yardville National, Commerce, PNC, Sovereign, Wachovia banks and the Credit Union of NJ stepped up and joined the campaign. They conducted 35 Asset Building Seminars all across Mercer County reaching 300 people. The topics included banking basics, mortgages, credit and credit repair and identity theft and senior banking.

Through direct mail, paycheck stuffers and handouts Mercer Alliance reached 238 Faith-Based organizations (twice), 630 homes door-to-door (courtesy of ACORN), all 1,823 of Ewing Public School's elementary students, 350 students and staff at Lawrence Public School, the Trenton High School and all public libraries. All 53 agencies and government offices of the Greater Trenton EITC and Asset Building Coalition received a comprehensive information folder and were reached through the Mercer County e-mail system with monthly (January - May) updates of free sites and asset-building seminars

100,000 information cards were printed and distributed to direct individuals to call United Way's 2-1-1 service to find the FREE Tax Prep site nearest to them. Over 7,000 green EITC flyers have been distributed along with 10,000 PSE&G flyers. 200 EITC posters in English and Spanish were distributed through the county.

An "EarnedIncomeTaxCredit.org" web site was created and launched in February 2006. The site had 3,800 hits from February to April 2006. United Way's 2-1-1 service answered 109 calls about EITC, free sites and asset building seminars in Mercer County.

Tyco International has been Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness' sustaining partner, with Merancas Foundation, Princeton Area Community Foundation, PSE&G, Yardville National, PNC, Wachovia banks and the County of Mercer providing additional financial support for the EITC and Asset-building campaign making it a success. Mercer Alliance operates out of office space donated by United Way of Greater Mercer County.

The goal of helping the homeless and working poor of Mercer County to apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, attend asset-building seminars and become more self-sufficient was achieved with participation of all of Mercer Alliance's partners.

The Young Leaders United hosted a Sushi and Sake event in May at The Conduit Nightclub in Trenton. This event brought together young professionals for an evening of conversation, dancing and a sampling of some delicious sushi and sake! They had the ability to share their interest in the community and become part of a greater group to help shape the future of their surroundings. The Young Leaders United offers people between the ages of 21-45 who live or work in Greater Mercer County an opportunity to network and combine their professional and philanthropic interests to promote and strengthen our community through United Way.

If you would like more information on the Young Leaders United program or want to learn how you can become involved, please contact Andrea Brobst at 609-637-4905 or email youngleaders@uwgmc.org.

UWGMC is still in the process of recruiting volunteers to serve on the New Business Development Committee. Members of the committee will be charged with identifying, recruiting, establishing and maintaining partnerships with new companies in Mercer County. Interested volunteers will assist with the "fundraising" as well as friendraising activities of the UWGMC, opening new doors of opportunity for all partners involved with this new initiative. If you are interested in joining the New Business Development Committee or would like to recommend someone, please contact Donna Wilson at 609-637-4907 or donna.wilson@uwgmc.org