United Way of High Point

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Carolina Cares again. I'mScotty Blaisdell along with Hannah Tyler, and
yeah, we're once again shining thatspotlight and we've shined it here before.
I love when these ladies are in. They're just a wealth of information for
the community of high Point and obviouslydoing great things and that's why we bring
them back. United Way of highPoint and we have Jane Leibscher with us.

(00:22):
What is your title once again?I am President of the United Way
of Greater high Point. And howlong have you been the pres I have
been president since twenty nineteen, buthave been with the organization since two thousand
and six. You see her aroundtown and people yell at her all the
time. You're the United Way lady. That's me. Well, first of
all, you have a big eventcoming up. We are so excited,

(00:44):
Scottie. We are getting ready forour fourteenth annual Can Pain Food Drive and
that's c A n All Caps CanPain Food Drive. We started this food
drive back in twenty ten as reallyan opportunity to kick off our annual fundraising
and what started relatively small and twentyten has grown tremendously. We've got a

(01:07):
record number of organizations participating this year. We've got forty four companies, yes,
who We're so excited. And sowhat these companies are doing currently is
running in house food drives or theyare collecting monetary donations for our food account
at the United Way. These dollarsand these donations will go for our local

(01:33):
food pantries. They will be restockedwith these donations. We've got nineteen food
pantries that will be recipients. Youknow, that is one of those areas
where sometimes it's just top of mind, and sometimes we can just get caught
up in our own lives and weforget that there are people in need every
day of those food resources, andwithout that food bank being stocked, they

(01:56):
just go without. And so itis that one of those basic necessities that
sometimes we could take for granted.That's right, Scottie. Our food banks
are showing record number of visitors.Since January. There has been a twenty
four percent increase in clients being served. Twenty six percent of that twenty four

(02:17):
are first time visitors, people likeyou and me who never thought they would
have to visit a food bank.But with inflation, the price of gas,
it's hard it's hard for working familiesto make it. The pantry shelves
are especially in need right now becauseit's right after summer. The children were

(02:38):
home from school and so people neededmore food, and so the food pantries
who have really been depleted. Inaddition, federal dollars were diminished this year
and so t FAP, which isa program that provides food to organizations such
as Second Harvest, they did notget the funding that they normally do,

(03:00):
and so the donations have not beenas great, and so there is just
not that outpouring from a national level, and so that's why it's so important
for the local community to step up. And as you say, there are
people, there are people in ourown backyard that are going hungry, which
is really hard for us to fathomthat people in our own community are hungry,

(03:23):
and you wouldn't necessarily even be ableto know it. That's right,
because people are I don't know,you have pride, you don't want to
ask for help, but I'm soglad you're there. So we are glad
you're helping out the community of HighPoint, not only with this campaign,
and I know you've been on before, but for someone who didn't hear that
interview. What other things do youdo for the community of high Point?
Oh, Hannah, how long doyou have Let's go yeah, Well,

(03:46):
so the United Way of Greater highPoint. You know, a lot of
times people think that our organization issimply oh, here they come asking for
money, and that is our primaryfocus because we have twenty seven partner agencies
that we go out into the communityand we raise dollars for these agencies run
programs in three basic areas, education, income, and financial stability. We

(04:11):
are very blessed in our community,the Greater high Point area where we serve
as high Point, Jamestown, Archdale, and Trinity. Our campaign ranks in
the top ten in the state ofNorth Carolina thanks to the philanthropic you know
that word, philanthropic. Thank youphilanthropic. Ooh I say that enough.
I should be able to easily sayit, but we really are surrounded by

(04:33):
generous people, and so these dollarsgo to these local partner agencies, agencies
such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the YWCA, the YMCA, Senior
Resources of Guildford. Again there's twentyseven of them. But in addition,
we are working to address the mostpervasive needs that are in our community through

(04:57):
different initiatives of our own. Oneof the initiatives we started last January of
twenty twenty two is smart Money.Smart Money is a series of financial literacy
classes that is taught every month andit travels to different spots in the community.
We go to where the people whoneed it the most. It really

(05:18):
came to light during COVID that financialliteracy was lacking for many of our residents
in our community, and research provesthat if people don't have good financial literacy,
they're not as successful in life's let'sdelve into that a little bit.
So I'm not in rough but Ithink I think I know what you mean

(05:39):
by that. But can you definehow someone puts into practice financial literacy,
absolutely, Scottie. For many peoplein our area, they've never had the
opportunity to save money. They don'tunderstand about saving, they don't understand about
budgeting because it's just basically been paycheckto paycheck, and these classes we are

(06:00):
hoping to teach people the basics.As a child, I wasn't given that
information so I could I could havebenefited from it, for sure, But
again, teaching them okay, thisis a savings account rather than spending all
that you make. You know,understand that, Okay, this bill is
going to come do, and thisbill is going to come do. And

(06:21):
we've currently we've had over six hundredand seventy five people participate in the program,
and through surveys following the sessions,people have made the commitment to yes,
I want to save. And oneof the opportunities that we have been
given through this program is really excitingfor me, and that is smart money

(06:42):
for children. Oh teen, Sorry, I just I get so passionate about
this because oftentimes they forget to teachmoney management in schools and you guys,
bringing this resource to high point isfantastic, Hannah, you are right and
that's where it needs to start.So we do. Thanks to some generous
grants from Bank of A Marta Americaand Truest and Wells Fargo, we have
been able to offer this and wehave had just some of the sweetest stories

(07:08):
from our children. We had onelittle girl recently. She had participated in
a kind of a quasi what wecall a poverty simulation. It's a session
where the participants are given so muchmoney and they're given scenarios, and you
have to decide, Okay, I'vegot this much money left, should I

(07:30):
you know, should I go getmy hair done? Or should I pay
this bill? And so there's youknow, it's about choices. And this
one little girl had been through theprogram and our VP of Community Impact,
LaToya Bullock, ran into her inthe hallway and the little girl was practically
in tears. And so LaToya islike, what, sweetie, what's wrong?
And she gets I'm out of money. I'm out of money, and

(07:54):
I don't know what to do.I mean, this child was visibly upset
and this was just as an exercise, an exercise, thank you, And
she said I can't make it.And I thought, how powerful is that
for a child to recognize that?And she even this little girl, I
think she was nine or ten,actually said this was a life lesson.

(08:16):
Wow. See, I love this. This is where real families get to
without that kind of direction. Andmaybe I'll be honest, I've been there.
I've been there because I didn't comefrom a family that really spent time
teaching things like that. And thenyou get preyed upon by people that want

(08:37):
to give you credit. Oh yeah, and then you get inundated by the
world saying you deserve that's right,and to the ability to say no this.
I need to make the smarter decision, the wiser decision, the adult
decision to say no to this,so I can say yes to this.
You are so right, Scottie.I remember I was a junior in college

(08:58):
and got a credit card in themail already with my name on it,
and I was like, I've gotfree money. That's right, this is
free money, and you know,and realized, Okay, I bought a
twenty dollars blouse that by the timeI finished is going to be sixty dollars.
So yeah, yeah, I wasn'tgiven that lesson either. So we're
hoping, we're hoping to end thatcycle of generational poverty by bringing these classes

(09:22):
in the community. I should remindeverybody if you just happen to be tuning
in, it's Jane Leibsher you're hearingfrom. She's with the United Way of
High Point, not just with them. She's the president, and we want
to bring it back before because ourtime always runs out. She just has
all the good stuff to talk abouttoo much. But I want I want
to go back because we want wewant to donate. We want to give

(09:45):
either donations of money or food.How can we do that for the upcoming
food initiative? Absolutely, there area lot of ways, a lot of
way Scotty and so, first ofall, one fabulous way is for people
to come to our office at eightfifteen Phillips Avenue in high Point and they
can just bring their non perishable fooditems to us. We've had people do

(10:09):
that. Also, they can visitour Amazon wish list, which is on
our website. People simply go towww dot United Way, HP dot org
and they can see that link.Makes it so simple. They can stay
in their pajamas and you know,drink their coffee and click on that Amazon
wish list and make a difference inthe lives of our community. I had

(10:31):
no idea Amazon, right, itwas usable this way. Yes, for
good and evil, that's that's right. So that's that's coming to your house,
that's right. There's also an opportunityfor people to make monetary donations.
Again, go to our website.And so I wanted to remind your listeners

(10:52):
as well that we are having CanPaying Food Night at the high Point Rockers
on Tuesday, September fifth, atfive fifteen, visitors bring five cans of
food and they get in free.Oh yes, and of course our food
pantries get the donations. And we'reso so appreciative to the High Point Rockers
for offering this again. This isI want to say, the third year

(11:16):
that they've partnered with us on this, and so that's a great opportunity.
Also, Tuesday, September twelfth,we will have an ambulance courtesy of Piedmont
Triad Ambulance Rescue parked at the Walmarton North Maine. People are gonna stuff
it full of non perishable food items. We'll also have a fabulous, bright

(11:39):
yellow Thomas built school bus on thelot at Walmart on North Maine on Thursday
the fourteenth. I wish you couldsee this because in the past several years
people have filled that bus up andit's so heartwarming to participate in that experience
because I've seen people come out withcarts grimming with food and their name brand

(12:03):
foods. You know, you've gotCoco Pebbles and Jeff And I remember one
lady last year because I was overwhelmedat the amount she was donating. She
said, I used to have toget food from a pantry and I remember
the kind of food that my childrenliked, and I want to help someone
else. So it is a verypowerful experience. And we are so appreciative

(12:24):
to Thomas Built Bus and to ourlocal Walmarts. And then we'll be at
Walmart on South Maine and high Pointon Friday. But our big culmination of
the week will be Thursday, Septemberfourteenth at our office a fifteen Phillips Avenue,
where we will have our goal revealfor our twenty twenty three annual fundraising

(12:46):
campaign. The high Point Fire Departmentwill be there with their ladder truck.
They'll they'll drop our banner to revealour goal. Plus our boardroom will be
overflowing with food. So I invitethe commune date come out, bring a
few cans of food, and comeand witness the amazing generosity that you'll see

(13:07):
from all this food. I loveyour passion, love what you're doing.
We're all about it. It's UnitedWay of high Point. Let's give out
the website one more time. Wwwdot United Way hp dot org. That's
Jane Leibscher, President of the UnitedWay of high Point. I'm Scottie b
along with Hannah Tyler and this isCarolina Cares