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STEUBENVILLE -- On this Thanksgiving Day, officials with the United Way of Jefferson County are feeling grateful yet decidedly concerned.
While they're thankful for community support shown through the years to generate funds for the organization's member agencies that help those in need, something's missing -- a strong workplace campaign, more personal interaction that the pandemic derailed to some degree and a younger presence to step up and sustain the agency.
An assessment of that brought Executive Director Laura Rauch and board members Tony Mougianis, Ed Florak and Tom Timmons together recently to talk and share solutions.
"One of the things is, we've come to realize that we have to put some juice, or spice, back into this campaign," Florak began the conversation. "I think we just got to a point where we had kind of run out of gas, some of us who had been involved, we're not as involved, and I think what we've wanted to do now is find a way of recapturing some of that spice and juice."
Getting some of that back involves a plan to bring some past into the present with increased visibility and a revived workplace campaign that fostered memories of the late Anita Jackson, Carol Bonar and Rose DeFede, individuals with a heart for community and a competitive spirit.
"We're going to go back to the way it was before when we had our lunches," explained Timmons, the board's vice president, of one plan in the works. "We would have our Day of Caring the first of September and then we would have report lunches or breakfasts three or four times before the end of the campaign and talk about where we are at the campaign at that time, having community leaders who will be leading different divisions whether retail or industrial and commercial and professionals and we'll have volunteers within those groups going out to solicit and try to get help for the United Way.
"I think we've kind of lost some of that, so we want to get that back the way it was before, and those people will be accountable and talking about how much they've raised toward their goal so that's kind of what we're going to do," Timmons said.
That continuity is important, he agreed.
"You were more visible -- it's not just sitting back waiting for them to make that donation."
Getting a younger faction involved is important, too, the discussion confirmed.
"That's a part of it we all agreed on," Florak said. "We need to find some people who will step up, maybe in their late 30s to early 50s in that range, who are going to step up, get involved and continue this process for the next 10 or 15 years," Florak said. "I think that COVID resulted in a drop-off of involvement, and we want to bring back the report luncheons. I always think of Mrs. (Pat) Fletcher who was head of the education area, and we had people involved in the professionals and the businesses in town and stuff like that. That's what we'd like to do."
Timmons agreed.
"We have to get that out to the young people how important it is to contribute back to your community and make those donations," Timmons said.
Rauch said the United Way is fortunate to have involvement from schools, but it's a support base that can be broadened.
"We have several schools involved; however, we're definitely looking for more schools to become involved," she said, encouraged by an opportunity on Dec. 2.
"I have a meeting with (Chuck) Kokiko (superintendent of the Jefferson County Educational Service Center) and all of the superintendents on Dec. 2 in which I'm going to be able to do a presentation to all of the superintendents within Jefferson County and, hopefully, they'll be able to trickle that message on to their high schools, their middle schools, their elementary schools of the fact that we need to get more workplace campaigns in place, and we definitely need more support from everyone in the community, including school districts," Rauch said.
And support is needed from schools and beyond, according to Rauch, in order to fund the 12 member agencies the United Way assists.
"It's important because we support these 12 local agencies who help the people in Jefferson County," Rauch said. "Fifty percent of the people in Jefferson County live paycheck to paycheck so they fall within those lines of there is help they can receive, and help they can't. They just fall right within that median, and with the cost of groceries going up and gas going up, people are in need of more of these services we provide."
That scenario also, however, can be a challenge when it comes to giving.
"I think we just need to reach more people and figure that out," Timmons said. "We've got to get those workplace campaigns and get with the big employers in the county and be able to do workplaces. We would just like the opportunity to make a presentation and let them decide if they'd like to donate."
"Our goal has been going down a little bit every year - we need to get more people involved and make that face-to-face contact. We decided that's huge. If you leave a (giving) card and go back two weeks later and get it, most people are going to make a donation. If you just leave it there, they're going to put it away, but if you say I'll be back in two weeks, they'll make a donation," he predicted.
Florak commented on the importance of connecting with someone who goes on to fuel the collection effort.
"One of the things we need to search for and find a way is to get the leadership of an organization," Florak said. "That's how I got involved back in the early 1970s because Fred Robe was president of the college (then Jefferson Technical College). He believed in the United Way, and he got me in and said, 'I want you to work this campaign and learn about how important this is for the community, come out and support these agencies,' and I think right now we need to find a way to get the person who is running the show at the top to buy in."
A simple explanation in workplaces suffices, according to Mougianis.
"You explain to your people how important it is to give back and to help the community," he said. "Everybody can give. I think it's our obligation to be able to give back -- I think it's an important part of what we all should do."
The pandemic impacted involvement.
"We've become, in post-COVID times, so anti-people, anti-person-to-person, and this is a kind of going back to the future, to the old ways of dealing with people face-to-face and taking this important cause to the community kind of on a grassroots level and getting away from the Zoom era of the cold, interaction -- there's no warmth, no love, and I think that's made a difference, and in awareness, out of sight, out of mind. I think we've been out of sight for a lot of reasons -- I think a lot of things have been because of this pandemic," Mougianis reflected.
Florak recalled how Mougianis' father, the late Nick Mougianis, embraced the philosophy of "You Win with People" attributed to former Ohio State University football coach Woody Hayes.
"We've gotten away from that interpersonal contact and that individual sales pitch to individuals, and hopefully we're working our way out of it, because not only do we need this in this community for the United Way, we need this as a national culture change, because we're just going in the wrong direction as far as engaging people and involving people," Florak said.
Mougianis reminisced about how he got involved in the United Way through the persistence and presence of the late Suzanne Kresser, who had served as the United Way's executive director.
The first time the knock on the door came to get involved, Mougianis admitted, "like a lot of things you blow it off. You get the info and put it on your desk and go about your merry way. So she comes knocking on the door again, and I spoke to her that time, and it was a pleasant conversation, and, again, I procrastinated. The third time, she brings Laura Meeks with her, and I have said it before, how are you going to tell these two women no," he said of Kresser and Meeks, then president of Eastern Gateway Community College.
"They're staring at you in your office, they come highly respected, humbly asking you to get involved. You can turn the computer off (a Zoom meeting) easy, right, and you don't have to respond to a text message, but it's hard to say no to someone who is staring at you face-to-face and someone you respect so I said, 'Yes, yes,' and I've been involved ever since, the better part of 20 years ago," said Mougianis, a past president and now board member.
"I think it's important that we have as many workplace campaigns as we can with the goal to increase. That's huge to get out there and talk to the employers -- the more workplace campaigns you have, the better," Timmons said.
Those were as important then as they are now, according to Mougianis.
"I talk about the generation of my father's age who would have been not far away from 100 now. That generation grew up during the Depression. My dad as a kid had the same pair of shoes for I don't know how many years as he was growing up, and he always had feet problems as an adult because his feet were growing in little shoes, but they learned humility, the desire to understand the important things in life, and those people have passed on that were a part of our United Way, like a Carol Bonar, like Anita Jackson, Rose DeFede, they were huge," Mougianis said.
"That generation had that ability, that desire to help their fellow man. That's the key, and what worries me as we go forward, I am 64, and our generation beyond me, I'm kind of concerned about their commitment to people," Mougianis said.
"Rose DeFede, people like that at those report meetings, spiced the campaign up," Florak interjected. "You could see that commitment, that was why they were there. We'd like to find some people who would commit to that in the future."
Rauch said the United Way is always interested to build on its fundraisers and create new ones.
The 2023 calendar includes April 19 for the Taste of the County, Aug 31 for Day of Action and Sept. 23 for the Suzanne Kresser Memorial 5K.
Though the 2022 campaign will be entering its final month, it's never too late to give, according to Rauch, who noted the $300,000 goal is "way low" of being reached.
There are many ways to make a donation -- in person at 511 N. Fourth St., Steubenville; by mail to P.O. Box 1463, Steubenville, OH 43952; by phone to (740) 284-9000; or online through the website.
"We want to see the United Way carry on," Mougianis said.
"It's not just about 2022 or 2023, it's really to the future."