Read Tom Sullivan's Letter to the Editor
One dollar a week ($52 a year) provides healthy meals to five shelter residents or a reading mentorship for two children. Five dollars a week ($260 a year) sends two campers to Boy or Girl Scout camp or covers class materials for 20 families learning how to support loved ones with mental illness. Ten dollars a week ($520 a year) provides activities for five seniors, pays for a six-week GED prep course for five young adults or sponsors the enrollment of 17 children in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which sends them each one free book every month for the first five years of life (that’s 1,020 books, total!).
“It’s a numbers game,” says Tom Sullivan, Southeast Regional Manager for First National Bank Alaska and United Way of Southeast Alaska board member. “A little really adds up to a lot.”
Enter the United Way’s Annual Workplace Giving Campaign, through which participants direct regular donations from their paycheck to the United Way of Southeast Alaska, or whichever of its 30-plus partner agencies they choose.
“You can donate much or as little as you like,” says Sullivan. “You don’t even notice the deduction, but it helps so many people.”
For nearly 50 years now, the United Way of Southeast Alaska has been working to “advance the common good” using a clear strategy for public service: “Give, Advocate, Volunteer.” Sullivan believes Southeast Alaskans excel at all three.
