It's 'Magic' time

New donors can give United Way of Jay County an extra boost.
The organization, which kicked off its 2016 campaign Friday during halftime of the Jay County High School football team’s game against Southern Wells, has secured a matching grant from the Indiana Association of United Ways.
The state association, through the grant, has agreed to match any new pledge of at least $100 or any pledge that is increased by $100. The grant spans two years and maxes out at $37,647.
All of those matching funds will be split evenly between Born 2 Learn, a mentoring program for elementary school students, and Jay County Promise, which offers matching funds to promote saving for post-secondary education through 529 college savings accounts.
The annual United Way campaign provides support to a variety of local organizations. Partner agencies for 2016 are Agape Respite Care, Boy Scouts, Bryant Community Center, Girl Scouts, Jay County Boys and Girls Clubs, Jay Community Center’s summer camp, Jay County Cancer Society, Jayland Homeless Shelter, Jay-Randolph Developmental Center, Pennville Community Center, Jay County Salvation Army, Second Harvest Food Bank, West Jay Community Center and Youth Service Bureau.
“We are touching a lot of lives in every corner of this county,” said Vicki Tague, who is co-chairing the campaign with Cindy Denney. “Every community in this county is touched by the United Way.
“We have a lot of new members on the cabinet this year and those new members, along with some members that have been with us for a while, are bringing a lot of excitement to this campaign. So we’re really looking forward to a great campaign with a lot of participation for the community.”
Friday’s kickoff of the campaign, which is themed “You can do Magic,” included tossing T-shirts and mini footballs to the fans in the stands.
Organizations participating in the Pacesetter campaign have already made $39,703 in pledges toward the campaign goal. They include MainSource Bank, Jay County REMC, Moser Engineering, Performance Tool, POET Biorefining, The Graphic Printing Company, First Merchants Bank and Jay School Corporation.
That number is nearly $12,000 more than in 2015.
“It makes me feel really good,” said United Way of Jay County executive director Jane Ann Runyon of the increase, “and I think it’ll make our cabinet want to get out and work that much harder.”
United Way of Jay County has set a fundraising goal of $175,000, the same as for 2015. In previous years it had been $200,000, but Runyon noted that a decision was made to adjust it after losing some major donors.
The 2015 campaign brought in $166,170 — 94 percent of its goal — following a $190,253 campaign in 2014.
“We lost Hartzell Fan. That was about a $20,000 campaign,” said Runyon of the company that shut down its Portland site. “And we actually had another industry that did not do an employee campaign last year. When you lose $40,000, there’s not place to go get it. It’s hard to find it.
“I would rather hit the goal, or maybe go over, than set it so high that we can’t reach it.”
Other members of the campaign cabinet along with Denney and Tague, industrial co-chairs Darrell Reeves and Cline Bryan, professional co-chairs Drew Houck and Rita Lutes, education co-chairs Andy Schemenaur and Katie Clark, leadership co-chairs Pam and Pat Bennett, agriculture chair Mark Tillman, small business chair Jeanna Ford, service organization chair Traci Gross, government co-chairs Dwane Ford, Don Denney, Lori Ferguson and Kathy James and health co-chair Vicki Delzeith. Jeanne Lutz and John Boggs are in charge of advertising.