By Michael Lea, Kingston Whig-Standard
As volunteer manager for the Youth Diversion agency, Jackie Franklin has been used to having the United Way’s Seeing is Believing tour come through her doors as workplace campaign volunteers took the opportunity to see where United Way funding goes.
But on Friday, Franklin got to be one of those taking the tour as she joined a couple of dozen business and institution campaign workers visiting five organizations the United Way supports.
She had never taken the twice-annual bus tour before and was looking forward to seeing some of the other agencies the charity funds.
“I have seen the United Way when they have come to us at Youth Diversion,” she said Friday morning as she waited for the bus loaned by Kingston Transit to leave the Memorial Centre parking lot for the first stop. “It’s nice to be in the bus with them this time.”
Fred Godbille, a manager at Dupont, was also on his first Seeing is Believing tour. He was part of a group of almost a dozen campaign workers from Dupont who filled the back of the bus.
He said their team leader had recommended the campaign volunteers take the tour and was able to arrange for them to get the time off work to do it.
“There are so many organizations in Kingston that benefit, it’s good to see at least a cross section,” he said.
Although it is always good to see where the donated money goes, he said he was confident in the United Way’s ability to distribute the funds.
Bhavana Varma, the United Way’s president and CEO, said taking the tour has an immediate effect on the campaigns of the volunteers on the bus.
“What we found is that workplaces that go on this tour, their campaigns actually go up almost 30%. They go back really motivated by the amazing work our frontline agencies do. When people see that and see what a difference they are making, it really has an impact.”
They try to pick agencies to visit where the campaign volunteers can actually see how the needs are being met, she said.
“We try to pick ones where people can see the visual impact.”
If you take them into an ordinary office, they might not get the full impact of what the agency is doing.
“But if you take them into something that is different from anything they would have experienced in their day to day lives, that’s when they really see the impact,” Varma said.
They also hold several mini-visits and custom tours for member agencies as well as the bus tours.
In a brief address to the volunteers before they headed off Friday, Varma thanked them for the time and effort they put in to help people they would likely never meet.
She said the tour would be a chance for them to see at least a few of the agencies and see the hard work they do every day.
“You will see how they treat all the people who walk through their doors with hope, dignity and a sense of belonging. They give them a helping hand. It’s not a handout.”
The tour stopped at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Kingston Home Base Non-Profit Housing’s youth services, Better Beginnings for Kingston Children, Pathways to Education Kingston and Outreach St. George’s
The United Way campaign has already topped the $700,000 mark toward its goal of $3.4 million.
“We had a good head start,” Varma said. “We got some really big cheques up front, which is great.”
michael.lea@sunmedia.ca
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