Happy Holidays from your friends at United Way. It has been one heck of a year, I’m sure you’ll agree.

At United Way we have had so much on our plates, and we are – in fact -- grateful for that. We’ve had successful days of caring, including a Community Baby Shower, a shoebox project to support at risk seniors, a distribution of beautiful flowers to homeless moms on Mother’s Day, food and school supplies drives, and a gleaning event which produced thousands of pounds of apples for our local pantries.

We’ve also had some great fundraisers, including not just our traditional Over the Edge and Sleepout events, but also this past month our very first ever “CARE-E-OKE” event at the Nashua Center for the Arts. That evening was so much fun, with 15 different competitors doing karaoke on stage in front of several hundred participants and being judged by celebrities including Mayor Donchess, the Editors of the Telegraph and the Union Leader, and football legend Kendall Reyes.

And we continue to do a large number of regularly scheduled events, including weekly pop-up food pantries, bi-weekly food drives, volunteer driven school tutoring, Rosie’s Pantry to help end “period poverty,” and deliveries of food to homebound pantry clients. With all of this, we remain hopeful for the future of Greater Nashua. We are encouraged by community support and the ever-present commitment of our volunteers, donors, and sponsors. All of them exemplifying our credo that Great things happen when we LIVE UNITED.

Mike

Things are always happening at the United Way and one of the great ways to get involved is to become a sponsor and get the inside scoop of the fun events that you can put on your calendar for 2024. Our day of caring sponsors help us to make five out of our 11 events a success before they even happen and the get first access to great volunteer opportunities too. Those five events are made possible by partnerships with other nonprofits and for-profits alike, they are a gift to the community, an educational opportunity, and finally, some of the nicest volunteer opportunities we have in the year. 

This year's events were so successful that we intend to include all of them again in 2024! You can see another article that describes all of 2023's successful Days of Caring but to that I add a bit about the why of these events. The shoebox project is an opportunity to care for isolated seniors and the particular difficulties that they face. The community baby shower allows expectant parents to learn of helpful programs before their young children age out of them. The community-wide food drive, held in June, provides a ton of food to local food banks and pantries at a time of year that is historically not a time when people donate heavily but is a time when need increases as schools gets out. The back-to-school drive helps support learners who want to prepare for school equally to their peers but do not have parents who understand or are able to fully equip them, it also prevents teachers from using their personal pay to support these students. Finally, the gleaning or food harvesting event is another event to reduce food insecurity and increase fresh produce that can be supplied for free to members of the community. 

A wonderful sponsor that we have been lucky to have support from over the last few years is NBT Bank.

They have come on board as one of our superhero Day of Caring sponsors. We appreciate that their goals align with ours and that they are helping us to do our part to create a flourishing community. They have chosen to invest in a program that offers tangible goods to particularly disadvantaged groups of our community, but that also offers wonderful volunteer opportunities for hundreds of people. If you have been moved by the meaning behind any of these Days of Caring, please consider sharing the idea of sponsoring them to a community business that you love. Also, consider reaching out to save the date for volunteer opportunities associated with them. Finally, please take a moment to appreciate the Day of Caring sponsors from 2023 and our newest Day of Caring sponsor, NBT Bank. 

December 6

Celebration of U

United Way volunteers, sponsors, and donors are the heart and soul of our work in the community. From newborn babies to senior citizens and at all stages of life in between, there is a United Way program making a difference because they are there to make it happen.

We’ll be celebrating our volunteers in style at the Anheuser Busch Brewery in Merrimack on December 6^th from 5pm to 7pm. This is a fun event thanking everyone for their hard work throughout the year. Come meet your fellow supporters and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back.

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/Celebration-Of-U-2023

February 5, 6, 7

Shoebox Project for Seniors

Our annual shoebox project is a community effort to put together important resources for low-income, homebound seniors. Each year a themed collection of useful items is assembled into hundreds of gift packages to be distributed through our partners – Meals on Wheels, The Caregivers, and Gateways Community Services.

The community can get involved by donating items like these: puzzle books, healthy recipes, note and greeting cards, stamps, magnifying glasses, pocket calendars, small stuffed animals, colored pencils, adult coloring books, combs & brushes, dentals floss, facial tissue, travel size shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, hand cream, hot chocolate, tea and coffee bags. We hope you’ll support our efforts by purchasing some of the items on the list and dropping them off or having them mailed to our office at 20 Broad Street, Nashua, NH 03064.