Several members of the Cornell community are playing key roles in the 2000 United Way of Tompkins County campaign on and off campus. Their efforts, which started last spring, are aimed at raising $1.8 million this fall. Of that, United Way hopes that $550,000 will come from the Cornell campus campaign, which includes employees, retirees and students.
LeNorman Strong, assistant vice president for student and academic services, is chairing the United Way campaign on campus, assisted by Karen Brown, administrative assistant in the Campus Life management office. Thomas LiVigne, real estate manager at Cornell, is president of the board of directors of United Way of Tompkins County.
The campaign will kick off with the fourth annual Day of Caring, slated for Wednesday, Sept. 13.
"We expect that 120 Cornell employees will come out for this event, which will involve Cornell volunteers working at United Way member agencies for the day," Strong said.
The campus campaign cabinet comprises a cross section of Cornell employees. They include: Patty Ard, executive staff assistant, Student and Academic Services; Philip Dankert, librarian, School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Dawn Darby, special project coordinator, Campus Life Marketing and Support Services; Michael Esposito, gifts and exchanges coordinator with Olin Library; Susan Lang, senior science writer, Cornell News Service; Philip McPheron, director of graduate and professional student housing with Campus Life; Mary George Opperman, vice president for human resources; Dana Roth, executive staff assistant, Office of Human Resources; Dennis Stein, employee outreach manager, Office of Human Resources; David Stewart, director of Community Relations; Laura Toy, director of college, unit and project development, Division of Alumni Affairs and Development; Latarsha Williams, admissions counselor, Office of Undergraduate Admissions; and Robin Yager, manager of the Administrative Service Center. Also serving on the campus campaign cabinet is Elizabeth Trapnell Rawlings, wife of Cornell President Hunter Rawlings.
United Way is an organized effort to raise money to support more than 100 local programs through 29 member agencies and 10 community councils that are designed to meet critical needs in the local community, Strong said.
"United Way is both a program and a process whereby the community invests in its most important asset -- its citizen community members," he said. "United Way programs support our youth, families, senior citizens and individuals who face a number of life challenges. Cornell's United Way campaign is the annual coming together of the Cornell community to support a commitment to do our part to make a difference in our community. The campaign also supports work that we believe needs to be done to improve our community. The fact that so many members of the Cornell community are directly involved with agency work is evidence of putting our commitment into action in Tompkins County."
Over the next several weeks, campus publications will provide information about how money is raised and put to use and how to make a donation, Strong said. "United Way facilitates community collaboration. The Cornell campaign provides us the opportunity to learn about community priorities and to add our voices and support to address priorities. I look forward to working with members of the Cornell campaign cabinet and our co-workers on campus in the activities that will make our campaign a success and that will demonstrate to the community that Cornell cares," he said.
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