How Can We Celebrate?

United Way of Southeast Missouri | April 2020 Newsletter

Fight United to Live United

Normally, this is when we would be writing the script for our Community Celebration, ordering awards for outstanding volunteers and workplaces, and confirming a food order for nearly 200 people. This year we were looking forward to wearing handmade tie-dyed shirts and giving them to our Leadership Donors to celebrate becoming a United Way in 1970. Like the rest of the country, we've had to adapt and change our plans for our Community Celebration scheduled for April 23rd as we combat the Coronavirus.

We hope our community will have much to celebrate in the near future. Until then, we are doing what United Way does best--finding ways to help by rallying our workplaces and volunteers and connecting their resources with the people who need them most. Instead of Celebration we are hosting a blood drive to help our partner, the American Red Cross, deal with life-threatening shortages. We are recruiting volunteers, including some of our own staff members, to help one of our partners in education, Cape Girardeau Public Schools, give meals to students. Read to Succeed is offering resources to parents via their R2S Facebook page , as we continue to update resources on our website . And we are asking anyone whose financial situation has not been impacted to give to our COVID-19 fund to help those whose financial house of cards and fragile lives cannot endure weeks of unemployment.

Eventually, when the time is right, we will celebrate. We will give our awards and come together to praise the efforts we all gave to keeping Southeast Missouri safe and healthy. Together we must FIGHT UNITED so that we all can LIVE UNITED.

Blood Drive

The Red Cross needs your help!

United Way of Southeast Missouri and the American Red Cross are hosting an upcoming blood drive. Please join our lifesaving mission and schedule an appointment today!

Drive Details:

Site: Cape Girardeau Blood Donation Center

Address: 20 South Mount Auburn Road, Cape Girardeau, MO, 63703

Room Name: Donor Room

Date: Thursday April 16, 2020

Time: 12:00 PM - 06:00 PM

Click here to make an appointment

Instead of hosting a Community Celebration, UWSEMO is hosting a blood drive! Donations of blood have gone down drastically, but the need has gone up! Now more than ever we need to LIVE UNITED and help our community by donating blood. Nationwide, someone needs a unit of blood every 2 to 3 seconds, and most of us will need blood in our lifetime. Everyone who donates gets a free container of United Way mini wipes. ALL FIRST-TIME BLOOD DONORS GET A LIVE UNITED SHIRT!

Thank you for supporting the American Red Cross blood program!

Download the Red Cross Blood Donor App on the App Store , Google Play or text BLOODAPP to 90999. Schedule appointments, view your blood type and results of your mini-physical, and track your donations.

To donate, sign up for a time here:

Over the Edge Postponed

No one knows how long the effects of the Coronavirus will impact our community or to what degree. Until we all feel confident returning to life as we knew it, many events, including Over the Edge (OTE) have been canceled or postponed. We are working with Southeast Missouri State University and OTE to try to identify another date that will not conflict with students, other events, or seasonal weather. Until then, all OTE donations will remain untouched in an OTE fund. Many thanks to our Edgers and donors who already committed. Our network and those we serve will need the resources this event brings in more than ever! #SEMOUnited

Thank you to our COVID-19 Fund Donors!

Mondi Group , we continue to be grateful for your support. Your generous $5,000 donation to our COVID-19 Fund will go a long way! Hundreds of people who will need financial hep in our area thank you, including this family who reached out:

"I am a substitute school teacher and my spouse is on disability. We are already living on a very tight budget, and now this will be a real struggle to pay for medication. Thank you in advance for any help you can give."

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Shout out to our local Schnucks for coming through with a extremely generous $3,000 donation to our COVID-19 Fund! This community is very lucky to have you, and this donation is going to go a long way! Hundreds of people across Southeast Missouri thank you. #SEMOUnited

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Thanks to these generous companies and many individuals, more than $10,000 has been donated to our COVID-19 fund in less than three weeks, and we are applying for two additional grants we hope will bring in significantly more. The longer we remain at home with businesses closed or drastically cutting services and hours, the more people in our community will need help with basic necessities like rent, utilities, and food. The COVID-19 funds will go to our partners that support basic needs, including The Salvation Army, food pantries, Emergency Student Funds in area public schools, and a Family Transition Team that helps when other agencies cannot.