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Champions of the Community 2005-06

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United Way of Martin County held its annual Champions of the Community event March 30, 2006, using an Olympic theme to honor key donors and volunteers.

One of the key moments came with the announcement that the campaign had so far raised $2.2 million, just $25,000 short of the goal.

Despite the importance of the monetary goal, the Champions event focuses honoring the volunteers, donors, companies and agencies who have made an impact on improving lives in Martin County.

Here are the major awards given out at the United Way of Martin County’s Champions of the Community event:

CORPORATE CHAMPION AWARD
Publix Super Markets

Publix totaled $276,083 in giving from the employees and the corporation. The corporate gift also included a special hurricane relief contribution above and beyond its annual gift.  

COMMUNITY
CHALLENGE
AWARD
Harbour Ridge
Of 37 communities that ran giving campaigns, Harbour Ridge had the highest percentage of participation among its residents – a staggering 70%.

The community achieved record-breaking donations of $305,816, which is shared between the United Ways of Martin County and St. Lucie counties. Pictured is Bill Dahl, campaign chairman for Harbour Ridge.

CAMPAIGN CHAMPION AWARD
Chuck Sawicki
As the co-chair of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society Chuck Sawicki’s personal challenge to raise 100,000 in new dollars inspired United Way.

AGENCY SPIRIT AWARD
Hope Rural School
This award goes to an affiliated agency that goes above and beyond in its support of United Way.

Here are just a few examples from the past year:

  • Hope Rural School joined with United Way Success By 6, the Martin County Literacy Council and the library system to bring books and lessons in literacy into individual homes in Indiantown, exemplifying the United Way ideal of getting to the root causes of problems, partnering with others, and bringing about lasting changes in people’s lives.

  • The school opened its doors during United Way’s “Discover Indiantown” event, which helped educate top United Way donors about the school, its parent outreach program, as well as conditions and changes in the community.

  • Each year, Hope Rural serves as the distribution point in Indiantown for the White Doves Holiday Project.

  • Sister Mary Dooley (pictured) and other staff also consistently volunteer to help when needed at agency fairs -- and most recently helped out by calling past donors during our “Thank-a-Thon” this month.

RESOURCE INVESTMENT CHAMPION
Gene Rifkin
A former director of the Council on Aging and a Stuart City Commissioner, Gene has provided leadership and expertise to the Resource Investment Committee for several years. Also, with her encouragement, the United Way Board of Directors added the Council on Aging as a partner agency and is targeting the expansion of services to the elderly as a new community impact initiative.

CHARACTER COUNTS! CHAMPIONS
Holly Laiben
Holly Laiben, an employee of the Martin County School System, has volunteered countless hours to Mentors for Martin, Take Stock in Children, Partners in Education, the PTA, and her church. She has served on the CHARACTER COUNTS! advisory board and has supported the program as a youth character award sponsor for the past five years. 

Dr. Mark Lively
His daily work encompasses a large and busy practice, Lively Orthodontics, yet he always makes time to volunteer at our schools, support youth sports programs, and maintain a stretch of Adopt-a-Road. He has been a longtime patron of the CHARACTER COUNTS! program, including this year’s sponsorship of 1,300 CHARACTER COUNTS! T-shirts for kindergarten students in Martin County.

SUCCESS BY 6 – CHAMPION FOR CHILDREN
Kathy Derringer, vice president of Helping People Succeed
Having been involved with Success By 6 since its earliest years in Martin County, Kathy understands the value of such an initiative. She coaches her staff at HPS to apply research on brain development in young children and gets it into the hands of all parents in an understandable way. 

VOLUNTEER & COMMUNITY
RESOURCE CENTER (VCRC) CHAMPION
Joe Mazzochi Sr.
The owner of Stuart Fine Foods is a quiet champion for many nonprofit agencies and school groups. With this award, VCRC thanks him for his support of the Good Times raffle, which raises funds for volunteer services and projects. For the past 15 years produces a tremendous return on investment for volunteer services and the goodwill of our community. This year, his contribution of $2,600 in free groceries returned $7,000 in raffle ticket sales – a record amount.

Chuck & Priscilla Sawicki and
Wendy and Denny Hudson

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE AWARD
Chuck and Priscilla Sawicki
The Alexis de Tocqueville Award is the highest honor that a local United Way can bestow and is presented to an individual or couple who have provided outstanding volunteer service and philanthropy in the community. 

Chuck and Priscilla Sawicki have served as the co-chairs for the Alexis de Tocqueville Society for the past two years. For this year’s campaign, they established the Sawicki Challenge and recruited a record number nine new Tocqueville members (donors of $10,000 or more) and raised $569,000. This dollar amount represents more than 25% of the entire annual campaign.

LEGACY AWARD
Bob and Carol Weissman
The United Way of Martin County Foundation’s first Legacy Award is presented to a local couple that has made a significant gift to the Foundation and has included an additional gift in their estate planning. In addition to being long-time members of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society, Bob and Carol Weissman have served on the resource investment committee, seeing first-hand the programs and people that have been helped through their contributions.

PRESIDENT’S AWARD
First National Bank & Trust Company
Martin County Property Appraiser Laurel Kelly, who is president of the United Way of Martin County Board of Directors, presented this award.

The award is given annually to honor extraordinary efforts in support of United Way -- not necessarily just in relation to the fund-raising campaign, but including work with United Way programs, initiatives and agency partners. Here is what First National has achieved this year alone:

  •  First National runs a Gold Award-winning employee campaign, with an extraordinary 81% participation among its employees.
    First National was a major sponsor of the Alexis de Tocqueville event at The Floridian Club.

  • CEO Denny Hudson and his wife, Wendy, will chair the Tocqueville Society next year.

  • First National is well-represented in the leadership of United Way. Tom Hall and Kathy Cavicchioli are on the United Way Board, with Kathy being a member of the Success by 6 advisory board. Another First National employee, Ronnie Houck, serves on the Character Counts! Advisory Board.
    In addition, Chuck Olssen, First National’s human resources director, facilitated the United Way strategic planning retreat this past year.

  • First National is also supportive of the White Doves Holiday Project, having sponsored the grand opening of the warehouse for many years, and making large contributions of paper, folders and other items to the School Supplies for Students Drive.

 

FINALE -
Campaign Chair
torch passes

This year’s campaign chairwoman, Margot Graff, of Fidelity Federal Bank & Trust, “passes the torch” to next year’s campaign chairman, Richard Levine, the general manager of the Macy’s store at Treasure Coast Square mall.