Elk County- The St. Marys Area United Way board of directors met on January 27, 2023 for their annual board meeting. The meeting was hosted by the City of St. Marys and held within the city chambers conference room. The meeting started with a brief City overview from city manager Joe Fleming and a presentation from parks and recreation director Dani Schneider regarding their efforts to rebuild a new Playland at Memorial Park. Jim Ryan, United Way Vice-President chaired the meeting and presented several agenda items for discussion. Two of the most important agenda items included the voting for the 2023 grant award recipients and the vote to set 2023 campaign goal to $200,000.

The St. Marys Area United Way board would like to thank the community for their generosity and support of the 2022 campaign. The United Way board is pleased to report that the community has exceeded the $170,000 campaign goal that was set for 2022. The funds that were raised in 2022 were made available for local organizations to apply for grant funding in 2023. The St. Marys Area United Way relies on contributions from companies and local individuals. Those donations support the financial needs of non-profit agencies that serve the health and human welfare needs of our community.

As a result of the 2022 campaign goal being achieved, the United Way board discussed and approved the following agencies for grant awards: Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services, Boys & Girls Club of St. Marys, Boy Scouts Bucktail Council, CAPSEA, Catholic Charities, Dickinson Center’s Crossroad Program, Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania, Guardian Angel Center, St. Marys First United Methodist Church Youth Program, St. Marys Public Library, St. Marys Recreation and Parks, St. Marys Area School District special library program, and funding to maintain the Eternal Flame located on the Diamond downtown St. Marys. The Board also approved a commitment of funding to support the City of St. Marys Parks and Recreation Leathers Playground Project. Specifically, the United Way funding would be used to help make the new Playland at Memorial Park handicap accessible. This commitment of funding is pending the city is awarded grant funding for the project and the Recreation board facilitates a capital campaign to acquire individual donations.

The board discussed the 2023 campaign goal increase from $170,000 to $200,000. The board agreed that this campaign goal increase was necessary to meet all the needs of the local nonprofits. Several board members suggested the need to leverage more funding from company payroll programs, the need to ask existing donors to consider increasing their donations, and to seek out additional local companies that may have an interest in supporting the St. Marys Area United Way. For 2022, the St. Marys Area United Way raised $31,778 through local companies’ employee payroll programs, $76,628 in corporate donations, $78,326 from individuals who give $500 or more a year (Leadership), and $5,510 from individual donations. Funds raised in 2023 will be available for organizations to apply for grant funding for a January 2024 grant distribution.