Your Gift Makes a Difference

Fifteen years ago Lori Landrath wouldn’t have believed that she could be homeless. She describes herself as having a pretty much middle class family. But, Lori started drinking more and more and eventually found herself without a place to live, no job, and no hope.

A friend took her to The Salvation Army shelter. One of the rules of the shelter is sobriety, so Lori quit drinking. She started attending counseling sessions and AA and learned to control her alcohol addiction. She described her situation as a “scary, fearful world” until she could admit that she had a problem, an addition, to alcohol. She was determined to make changes in her life and get her self-respect back.

After spending several months in the shelter she moved to a transitional home where absolute sobriety was also expected. She continued counseling and worked at getting her life back on track. A part-time job at Goodwill with the support of Community Clubhouse was her first step in returning to self-sufficiency.

A few months later she moved into a mobile home with the help of the United Way funded Emergency Housing Assistance Fund. The funding from that program helped her with rent while she continues to work and rebuild her life.

Lori is currently working at a local bakery and continues to make progress on her return to independence and financial stability. She doesn’t know what the future holds, but she’s determined to face it with strength, courage and faith.

She is committed to helping others who face similar problems.  She recently told commented, “There are so many resources available… you just need to reach out. No one has to live in fear or on the streets if they don’t want to. You just have to ask yourself how badly you want to change and then go ahead with doing what needs to be done.”

Lori is taking her own advice and doing what needs to be done.

Day of Action was June 21

June 21, the longest day of the year, was the 10th annual United Way Day of Action. Tens of thousands of people around the world donate their time to help local United Way's with projects during the local Day of Action event.

Here in Marathon County, groups of volunteers painted bookshelves that will be filled with donated books and placed in local organizations that serve families with children. Families will be able to take home a book to keep and read with their child.

In addition to our teams of painters, we want to recognize and thank:

Clark Schuette for designing and building our bookshelves.
Local companies who hosted book drives and collected over 5000 books to fill the shelves
The volunteer who helped clean, sort and organize the books.

Having books in the home is one of the most important factors in helping kids learn to read. We appreciate your help to "Put Books in the Hands of Kids."

Congratulations to Tony Omernik

Tony Omernik, United Way RSVP of Marathon County Program Director was recognized as the Volunteer Engagement Honoree at the annual Governor’s Service Recognition Event recently. The event, held at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin, honors outstanding volunteers, national service participants and programs that have helped to address serious needs in their communities. 

In accepting the award, Omernik credited the RSVP volunteers themselves as “the ones who have helped RSVP grow and become a successful program in service to the community.” 

Locally, the RSVP program supports all 55+ adults in our community with programs that go beyond volunteering.  Retirement well-being and healthy aging education programs, technology tutoring, blood pressure screening and hypertension education, community coffee hours, and the community connection calendar all support healthy, active living for older adults and are provided free of charge.  In the 6+ years RSVP has been in operation, a total of 600 RSVP members have contributed over 214,000 hours of volunteer service. 

Fill A Backpack Fill A Need Coming Soon

Registration Open for Kick-off Breakfast

United We Can Registration Open

Partnership for Youth Receives Grant for new Project

Much attention lately has been focused on kids in crisis. Behavioral incidents in the classroom have been increasing in both frequency and severity among all age groups, and truancy is up over 51% since the 2012-2013 school year for several local high schools.  Collaboration among school districts, social services, law enforcement, mental health providers, and community organizations serving kids and families led to the development of Partnership for Youth’s (PfY) Diversion Pilot.

This project is prevention-focused to divert kids away from the justice system by increasing access and removing barriers to services, such as mental health counseling in a school-based setting. This pilot also works to ensure students are able to receive needed services and support regardless of their family’s insurance status or ability to pay for services.The pilot will be implemented in partnership with the Marathon County School-Based Counseling Consortium and other community partners. 

Services will launch at Thomas Jefferson Elementary, Wausau West and D.C. Everest Senior High during the Fall 2017 Semester. The pilot at Weston Elementary is targeted to start second semester of the 2017-2018 school year. Specific launch dates depend upon securing the estimated $150,000 for implementation. Thanks to the B.A. & Esther Greenheck Foundation and the Wausau-Marathon County Fund of the the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin for being the first to dedicate dollars to help launch this project.

Happy 4th of July!

Our Office, the Career Closet, and Rebecca's Closet will be closed on July 3 and 4 in observance of Independence Day. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!