Tari Jahns, CEO United Way of South Wood & Adams Counties
Creating lasting change is not easy. You need vision – a direction to go and a road map to get there – a mission. United Way’s vision for our communities resides within our Agenda for Change and our desire to create a better life for all by focusing on the building blocks of a better life: education, income, health & safety net services. We...
By Amy Fluno, 2-1-1 Program Director
2019 is half over already and it was a busy time for us here at United Way's 2-1-1! We took on a new project of making tax appointments for our friends in Marshfield and that really kept us on our toes. We took over 2500 calls in the first half of the year with 702 being tax appointments.
Top 5 Calls for 2019:
For a second year in a row, United Way of South Wood & Adams Counties partnered with United Way Worldwide and H&R Block to offer MyFreeTaxes.com to south Wood and Adams Counties residents. This year, our local program experienced a total of 106 tax filers (with an average age of 41) who received an average refund amount of $1,358.00. Last year we saw 66 tax filers (with an average age of 39) who received an average refund amount of...
Parents and guardians who wish to register their students to receive FREE school supplies can begin applying on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Pre-registration will continue until August 1, 2019. School supplies will be distributed during “Stuff the Desk” on August 16-17, 2019 at Lincoln High School (1801 16th St. S., Wisconsin Rapids). Items that are distributed will come from a community-wide collection on August 1, 2019 during Lunch By The...
The South Wood County Hunger Coalition’s United We Can Committee is currently recruiting teams to compete in its 7th Annual “Strike Out Hunger” United We Can Food Sculpture Contest. During the contest, teams from around the community create sculptures made entirely out of canned food (and other basic need items) donated by businesses and friends. After the event, the Hunger Coalition will distribute the collected items to area food programs...
United Way of South Wood & Adams Counties is now distributing the 2019 Help Guide for South Wood County. So far, over 11,000 Help Guides have been distributed throughout south Wood County, including non-profit organizations, government offices, clinics, banks, gas stations, and churches. The Help Guide answers questions that someone going through a challenging time might be asking, such as “Where can I locate subsidized housing or...
Disaster can strike anytime, which is why it’s important to be prepared. On March 13 and 14, 2019, our Disaster Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) team had another opportunity to train and participate in an exercise that will be critical should a disaster occur. During a disaster, volunteers come from all over to help – we call these “spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers.” While their efforts and skills are greatly appreciated, it can put a...
The 2019 Volunteer Breakfast Nominees:
Guadalupe Ancel - Guadalupe began serving on the Mead Elementary Charter School Governing Council in 2014 after three years of retirement from Mead School as an English as Second Language teacher. She will have served 2.5 terms or 5 years at the end of the current academic school year. Guadalupe is the current president of the Governing Council. In her...
United Way of South Wood & Adams Counties is now entering its eleventh year of partnering with FamilyWize – a prescription drug discount card that saves residents up to 75% on prescription costs. Thanks to this partnership, we are able to distribute cards at local government agencies, non-profit organizations and churches, etc. at no cost to us because of the FamilyWize media sponsors. “One of our goals is to keep money in the pockets...