Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning. It is 815. Joining us on Zoom, Rhonda Jasper from the Seneca County United Way. Hi, Rhonda. How are you this morning?
Ronda Jasper: I'm good. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well. Doing well. And the month of December is one where the value of the month is a positive view of personal future. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Ronda Jasper: Sure. As we finish up the year and head into New Year's and all those dreaded New Year's resolutions and everything, it's really important to set realistic goals for ourselves as an example to the kids around us. But remember that even though it feels like a lot of things around us are out of our control, and there are a lot of things around us that are out of our control, we still have control to how we react to things. We can set small personal goals for ourselves, for the communities we're in. We still have control and we still can be positive and view our future as being positive and having a positive effect on others.
Paul Szmal: I love one of the tips for adults here, which is encourage them to tell you their dreams. It's true. It's true. You just got to listen to kids. They've got some amazing ideas and the more you listen to them when they're young, even if the dreams seem crazy, the more willing they are to come to you when they're older. I really say, you know, it's you got to listen to kids because they're gonna say amazing things, but if you don't, they're not going to be able to talk to you or not want to talk to you when they're older and those things are super important.
We're joined by Rhonda Jasper from the Seneca County United Way here on FLX Morning. I know you just recently had your community Thanksgiving event successful in all accounts from what I've heard. Tell me a little bit about how the event went and some of the people that helped make that event possible.
Ronda Jasper: Oh, it was absolutely wonderful. I just love how the whole community comes together. It's grown so much over the past, well, nine years now, and it truly is a community response. We had over 100 volunteers working. We had donations from all sorts of local agencies or businesses for food and things like that. We had 1300 meals total. That's definitely our record. Over 1000 of them just in deliveries and pickups alone. We've never done more than about 650 in that before. So those numbers were astounding. And I'm not going to lie, there was some panic because we weren't expecting numbers that high. And doing the deliveries and the pickups on Wednesday leaves us still with the full buffet on Thursday. But everyone just banded together and we were prepared and it was amazing. People came. We've watched kids grow up. You know, my own daughter has grown up through the process, which has been neat. But we have volunteer families who have been there since the beginning who used to come as their family Thanksgiving and other kids come home from college and bring their boyfriends and girlfriends. And it's just, it's been just wonderful to kind of grow up with it.
Paul Szmal: And this is one of those, sorry to interrupt Rhonda, but this is one of those events where volunteers are critical.
Ronda Jasper: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it takes a lot of people to peel, you know, like 400 pounds of potatoes. I mean, it is actually, and then cooking it all and everything. My hands hurt just thinking about doing that, actually.
Paul Szmal: Exactly. Yeah, we had 40 pans of homemade cobbler. That's a lot of apples to corn and slice up. It's just, it's a lot of time consuming work. And we learned a couple years ago that it was unrealistic for us to continue to try to cook that many turkeys right at the Elks Lodge. You know, we are cooking anywhere between 80 and 100 turkeys. And that basically meant we had volunteers around the clock cooking turkeys. So again, we were able to reach out and use some of the other kitchens in the area. So Del Lago took a bunch of turkeys for us. Dewey's Third Ward Tavern, The Gould, Simply Homemade, SMS, and even the Seneca Falls School District has helped us out this year.
Ronda Jasper: Well, that was fantastic. And again, it's the United Way kind of being that umbrella of a community effort with various organizations and various businesses all coming together for one common cause.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely, we could not do it without the Seneca County House of Concern, which has been there since the very beginning, as well as the Elks Lodge.
Now you've got some participation coming up in the It's a Wonderful Life Festival that's happening in the village of, I'll call it Bedford Falls, because that's what it becomes during the course of the weekend. Tell me a little bit about the panel discussion you're going to be having. This sounds really interesting.
Ronda Jasper: So yeah, so we're going to be having for the last couple of years, we've brought in a panel to Trinity Church to talk about suicide awareness or the local efforts or, you know, there was a couple different, you know, focuses we've had. And this year, we really want to focus on, you know, the importance of the individual and being able to take care of yourself. We've got some people coming in with some personal stories, or stories of family members who have had those low moments and have seen somebody else or talked to somebody else who was able to help them out. So a different take on it. Previous years, it was really focused on local resources and some of the tremendous collaborative efforts we have here, like between law enforcement and mental health. But we're really going to widen it, we have more, a more diverse panel, I should say. It's not all local people.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, speaking of which, one of the special guests is going to be Monica Capra-Hughes, which is, she is the granddaughter of legendary movie director Frank Capra.
Ronda Jasper: Yes, yes, and comes with a fantastic story to go with it. And that'll be happening at the Trinity Church on 27 Fall Street. What time will that be happening over the course of the weekend, Rhonda?
Paul Szmal: That is Saturday at two o'clock.
All right, that is something definitely worth looking forward to amongst all of the activities that are happening. Especially, you know, if the weather's going to be a little bit iffy during the course of the middle of the day, then by all means, you can check in there at the Trinity Church and participate in that discussion. It's called the Timeless Message of It's a Wonderful Life. Never again will there be anyone like you. And the panel will draw connections between the classic movie and life today. And you're still going to have the theme of suicide prevention and mental health resources as part of that.
Ronda Jasper: Oh, of course, we will have a presence at the visitor center all weekend, Friday through Sunday. We have a table, we'll have a table set up with kids and family activities. So you can get out of the cold for a little bit if you need to warm up. But we'll also have all of our information, of course, which will include local resources. But a lot of the things that we promote, like 211 and 988, they're, they're, you know, they're good for anyone. You can go home and still use those as well. It'll go out to your local providers.
Paul Szmal: All right. And of course, the campaign, the fundraising campaign, it never really stops. But it does start to wind down as we get toward the end of the calendar year.
Ronda Jasper: It is true. Our campaign definitely goes through early spring. However, I know a lot of people and a lot of budgets run out at the end of the year. So a lot of people really want to get their donations in by that December 31st deadline. So there's still time. I unfortunately, I don't have a specific number, but I know that we are beyond half our goal, which is super exciting. And we know that there can still be a difference. And every bit helps. You know, we've said again, $1 a week for 2025 from every house in Seneca County would nearly double our budget. And of course, those volunteered or those donations not only help the volunteers to do their work, but without those donations, you don't have things like Community Thanksgiving, you don't have things like the panel discussion bringing in Frank Capra's granddaughter as part of the It's a Wonderful Life Festival. You don't get a lot of the programs that the United Way provides. And the partner organizations that work with the United Way, they don't get the help they need without donations either.
Paul Szmal: Correct. And all of our donations stay right in Seneca County. So if you're looking to keep your dollars local, even if one of our partner agencies such as Safe Harbors, which does amazing work, but across several counties, if you donate to Safe Harbors through us, it'll stay in a account or an account just for Seneca County residents who are in need of that assistance that go through their services. So it's a great way to make sure your dollars stay with neighbors.
And let's take a peek ahead to for the January value of the month since the New Year is going to be here before we know it.
Ronda Jasper: It's well, I got to I got to peek ahead of that respect, equality and social justice. And that's relying on a high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty. What are some of the tips that you could give youth or adults to follow along with that value of the month?
Paul Szmal: Just really learning about other people around you being tolerant, that whole stopping to listen, not to respond. It's, it's just that respect. Again, the kids are watching all adults, you don't have to be a parent for kids to be watching you to see how you react to things. But we are modeling everything the adults are doing is is a model for younger people. They're hearing our words, they're watching our actions. And they're seeing how what is acceptable and what is not. You know, and being aware that even in a small community, there's hunger, there's poverty, there's homelessness, you know, we're not immune from anything you see in larger communities. We know that nearly half the families in Seneca County are living paycheck to paycheck or less. So that's that's I mean, that's one out of two people you see a day, a lot of people that are struggling.
Ronda Jasper: And one of the messages that goes along with the January value of the month for adults to start a family tradition of volunteering either at a community dinner or community garden. There's always a need for volunteers within the United Way organization.
Paul Szmal: Yes, and we have something from everyone from sitting at a table and helping us stuff family time boxes to peeling those potatoes and apples to going out and helping at the table. So depending how comfortable you are, and what exactly you want to do, we can probably find a spot for you.
I think I'll stick to stuff in the envelopes because I'm not quite so sure about doing the potato thing. But Rhonda, thank you so much for joining us here this morning. If people want to find out more about some of these United Way programs, the values of the month or anything that we've talked about, what's the website they can check out?
Ronda Jasper: www.uwsenica.org.
Paul Szmal: All right. We'll talk again soon. Rhonda, thank you so much.
Ronda Jasper: Oh, thank you.
