Despite the challenging economy, the United Way of Central Alberta says the community pulled through once again to ensure they can keep helping those that need it most.
 
Their Community Celebration Breakfast this morning revealed their latest campaign raised just over 2.1 million dollars.

Red Deer City Manager and Campaign Co-Chair Craig Curtis says there's no question we live in a generous community, where people realize there are needs that need to be met “some of our supporters really ramped up their action and increased the amount they donated because they realized it was going to be a very tough year, and new people came in and dropped off cheques, dropped off donations, even when they were smaller ones, and that helped to bring it up to a total that we were very proud of”.

United Way CEO Robert Mitchell says the total is down slightly from previous years, but they'll be able to maintain the same level of support for their programs this year as they did in 2016 “we’re probably going to have to make some cutbacks in other areas, we’re going to reduce our resources in some areas, but we’re going to try and keep our investments into the community the same. So, we’re probably going to trim a little bit, everyone is hurting a little bit, so we’ll probably have to do the same. Also we do have some reserves as well, so that’s the main way we’re going to do it, we’ve had some good years in the past as you guys know, so we’ve put that money in reserve, invested it wisely and will use some of that money for sure”.

United Way supports around 40 programs in Central Alberta in the areas of education, to help kids reach their full potential, income, to help people move from poverty to possibility and wellness, recognizing that healthy people build strong communities.

Campaign Co-Chair, Red Deer City Councillor Ken Johnston was impressed with how creative the community and workplaces were in finding unique ways to raise money, while having a lot of fun.
 
The top 3 fundraising contributors recognized at today's Community Celebration Breakfast were NOVA Chemicals, Dow / ME Global, and Alberta Health Services.