United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region

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Early morning meetings seem to be happening much more frequently around our office. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the annual Top 25 Breakfast, this year held at the Gilmore Car Museum. What an amazing location with so much history! Though it was early, excitement was in the air from the region’s largest contributing organizations and companies toward the United Way campaign.

There are a lot of great parts of the United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region, however, I have to say one of my favorites is our Youth United Way organization.  We have a collection of high school students from around the area who are working toward making their community a better place, while learning the finer points of the grant process and philanthropy in general.

Everyone seems to be coming down with Olympic Fever.  The 2012 Olympics in London have engrossed people around the world, and honestly, who can blame us?  It’s a lot of fun cheering on our favorites and watching the amazing feats of athleticism.

Denise Washington seemed destined to be a poster woman for young, single mothers aspiring to little more than a minimum-wage existence.Forty years ago, Washington was offered a college scholarship to pursue a degree in accounting at Western Michigan University and had a promising internship lined up.  But with a semester left before her high school graduation, she became pregnant and all that vanished.

This morning, while most of Kalamazoo was hitting the snooze button to enjoy the sound of rain just a little longer, our 2012 Employee Campaign Managers were meeting for breakfast and training at the Senior Services Center.  We had a great turnout and everyone seemed enthusiastic about beginning their workplace campaigns.  This year’s training had a noticeable theme, from pit stops to turbo charged campaign strategies, there was no way to hide our excitement about our sweepstakes prize: a brand new car!