Local

United Way conducts annual fund-raising drive

By JIM MANIACI, Laughlin Nevada Times

Monday, November 2, 2009 1:32 PM PST

LAUGHLIN - The region's new United Way is in the middle of its annual two-month fall fund-raising campaign, asking workers at businesses to pledge regular contributions through a payroll deduction plan. Each donor who pledges at least $5 per paycheck will receive a coupon booklet, a staple of the Colorado River Region for years, now expanded to include Lake Havasu City. Senior Vice President Penny Renfro, at the Laughlin office, expressed her appreciation to Harrah's Laughlin and Jet Printing for making the booklet possible.

This year's campaign began Sept. 17 with the highly popular Sand Blast at the Avi Resort-Casino. It will conclude Nov. 17. The campaign will determine how much money will be raised for the three sub-regions of the new River Cities United Way - Lake Havasu City-La Paz County, Kingman, and the Tri-state area (formerly the Colorado River Region, which included Kingman).

Renfro said she hopes the volunteer effort will be able to match last year's $570,000 because of the current economic climate that has hit so many families so hard in the Tri-state area; and that the brand new Kingman region would like to raise $125,000.

Applications from non-profit organizations seeking a United Way allocation will be available Feb. 15. Committees, separate of each region's board or the overall executive committee, will begin meeting April 10 to screen all the qualified applications and determine how much each group will receive.

On June 1, the organization will announce its allocations.

The current Tri-state river communities board consists of Jacinda R. Castillo-Foss, Dan Blythe, Arrilla Bronn, Diane Burton, Matt Giulioli, Linda Elam, Stephanie Hendrix, Wally Kerns, Mike Lipshultz, Lisa McCabe, Nichole Radcliff, Joann Krieg and Lori Fonzi.

The executive committee that is the initial transitional RCUW board consists of co-chairs Foss and Tamara Wooster, vice co-chairs Blythe and Jeremy Fry and members Barbara Brown, Elam, McCabe and Ron Verstraeten, plus one person to be named by the eight-member Kingman advisory board.

For more information call 702-298-0611.