United Way of Central Oklahoma
Disaster Relief Fund

Checks, with a notation of “May Tornado Relief” also can be sent to the United Way of Central Oklahoma, P.O. Box 837, Oklahoma City, OK , 73101

Donations online can be made at www.unitedwayokc.org.

Moore, OK, is asking that volunteers do not respond on their own. They are requesting trained volunteers through relief organizations such as our partner agencies the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Imagination Library Coming
to Kansas City!

What better way to celebrate United Way’s Annual Meeting than by announcing the addition of another new initiative designed to help us improve lives throughout our community! The United Way Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) is bringing a unique new early childhood literacy resource, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, to Kansas City this year.

Learning to read is like learning to walk or talk – the process begins at birth.  The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides children with a carefully-selected, age-appropriate book every month from birth until their fifth birthday, a program designed to help children be better prepared to enter kindergarten. Click here for all the details on the Imagination Library and what it will mean for Kansas City area children – or to make a donation to support this important new resource!

The WLC also announced that two major sponsors – BMO Harris Bank and the Government Employees Health Association (GEHA) – are partnering with United Way to bring this important educational resource to our community.  Our thanks to BMO Harris and GEHA for this invaluable support, as well as to the WLC members who have already made donations to be listed as “curators” for the new library.

Adele Hall Spirit of Caring Award and Corporate Pinnacle Award Presented

A highlight of this year’s annual meeting was the presentation of the third annual Adele Hall Spirit of Caring Award and the second annual Corporate Pinnacle Award.  Roshann Parris, president and CEO of Parris Communications and former United Way board member, received the Adele Hall Award.

Parris urged the attendees to “leave your handprint on the heart of Kansas City,” and she paid tribute to the spirit of Adele Hall, for whom the award is named and who passed away last month. “Adele lit the torch and kept it burning brightly in more places than we can count. Imagine what our community would be like if we all lived every day with that same spirit of caring.”

Black & Veatch, a company which has conducted a United Way campaign for more than 55 years and is now one of only three in Greater Kansas City whose annual campaign tops the million-dollar mark, received this year’s Pinnacle Award.

Len Rodman, president and CEO of Black & Veatch, paid tribute to his company’s 10,000 employees and said that United Way was the perfect fit for Black & Veatch’s company mission of “building a world of difference.” Congratulations to both of these very deserving recipients!

Keynote Speaker - Stacey Bess

Educator Stacey Bess, whose work teaching homeless children was chronicled in the Hallmark TV movie “Nobody don’t love Nobody,” was keynote speaker for the event. She recounted life-changing encounters with the homeless students and parents she worked with for more than a decade, and told the audience they were “in an incredible position to invest in a child, which lifts up a family, which improves our whole community.”

Thanks to the 600 friends who attended the Annual Meeting and to our corporate sponsors for this year’s event: Black & Veatch, Burns & McDonnell, DST Systems, JE Dunn Construction, Sprint and UMB.