2013 Campaign Co-Chairs Announced

Greg Graves, chairman and CEO of Burns & McDonnell, and Patrick “Duke” Dujakovich, president of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, have been named co-chairs of the 2013 campaign for United Way of Greater Kansas City, and an additional 13 community leaders have been named to serve on this year’s campaign cabinet. “I have supported United Way for many years, because I believe an investment in United Way is the single best way to help the greatest number of people improve their lives and strengthen the overall well-being of our community,” Graves says. Click here to see the news release and complete list of campaign cabinet members.

United Way of Greater Kansas City
Young Leaders Society Attends
3rd Annual Night at Sporting KC

Over 120 YLS members and their families made it out to this event, one of YLS’s most highly acclaimed events.  Members started the evening with a family tailgate, then headed into the stadium to watch the Sporting KC match.  For the first time in the history of this event, YLS members were invited down to the field after the game for a group photo with the mascot. 

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.