We have received a very heartfelt THANK YOU from United Way Elgin Middlesex and United Way Oxford. Through our collective efforts, together we raised $64,854.86! This could not have been achieved without everyone’s continued support and enthusiasm. A special thank you to our United Way Leads for their invaluable work and generosity coordinating our drive in each of our schools. To all our staff who through personal donations and fundraising initiatives have contributed to United Way – THANK YOU!
United Way ‘crosses the road’ to assist those in our community in need. Below Travis, a United Way program participant, describes the difference United Way made in his life.
“Becoming homeless was really stressful. It started when I was 15 – I was removed from my family home by the police when things got really bad one day. I ended up hitchhiking across the country, getting into drugs and living on the streets.
But in 2015, I was offered the chance to go home and get clean. A few months later, I was accepted into a United Way-supported transitional housing program for men recovering from addiction. I started doing everything I could do to avoid falling back into old habits, like volunteering at a community garden.
Now, I’m studying computer science at university and working part time at a local homeless shelter.
When I was at my worst, I would walk down the street and people would pretend I wasn’t there. Nowadays, people cross the street just to say hi to me. I want people like me to know it can get better. There are always going to people there for you – you just have to open up and allow them in.”
“God does watch over us and does notice us, but it is usually through someone else that he meets our needs.” Spencer W. Kimball