The United Way of the Danville Area is getting set to kick-off this year’s campaign. And Sherry Askren, Executive Director of the local United Way, says allocations will be lower this year. The sixteen United Way agencies will be sharing about $360-thousand dollars this year, compared to $400-thousand dollars last year.
Askren notes that agency directors have been forced to deal with fewer dollars the last couple of years because of the state’s budget impasse. ‘’You know the agencies did a great job in the last year or two without the state funding – doing their own programs to bring in more money for them to use to keep their doors open. So you’ve got to give a lot of kudos to the agency directors for that,’’ said Askren.
Askren is taking an extra step this year to try to help the agencies. ‘’We took $22-thousand dollars out of our own operating budget so that we could give back more to the agencies. We’re willing to run on as little as possible so that we can still keep this community running like it should,’’ said Askren during an interview on WDAN Radio. ‘’We don’t mind doing that for a year or so as we raise more money,’’ she added.
This year’s United Way campaign will officially kick-off early next month. The drive supports 16 not-for-profit agencies in our area.
They include Big Brothers – Big Sisters, Prairie Council Boy Scouts, Danville Family YMCA, CRIS Healthy Aging Center, Vermilion County Rape Crisis Center, Salvation Army and others.
