Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues now. It is 8.15 and we are at 55. A little chilly for this time of year. I have a trio of guests now from the United Way of Cayuga County joining us. One of our usual regulars, Julissa Stonespeicher, is with us. Julissa, good morning. How are you?
Julissa Stonespeicher: Good morning, Paul. I'm doing great. How are you doing?
Paul Szmal: Good, good. And I'd also like to introduce the brand new Executive Director, Lisa Kaminsky. Lisa, good morning.
Lisa Kaminsky: Good morning, Paul.
Paul Szmal: And also here is the Programs and Office Assistant Administrator, Sarah Sales. Good morning, Paul.
Sarah Sales: Thank you for having us.
Paul Szmal: Yes, yes. Thank you all for joining in here this morning as we have a chat about some of the upcoming things that the United Way of Cayuga County has going on.
I wanted to start by talking to Lisa. You've only been on the job just a couple of weeks. How have things been for you so far?
Lisa Kaminsky: Things have been great. I am learning a lot of things from the staff. They've been fantastic in teaching me all about Cayuga County United Way. And I've been getting out into the community and meeting some partner agencies and business partners. So it's been great learning a lot over the past couple of weeks.
Paul Szmal: Has this been jumping into the deep end of the pool head first for you?
Lisa Kaminsky: A little bit, but it's been exciting and I'm excited to continue learning and meeting people.
Paul Szmal: Fantastic.
There is one of the activities that's coming up that we wanted to chat about this morning is becoming a book buddy, especially now for the 2025-26 school year that is starting up. Lisa, you and Sarah can probably speak to this.
Sarah Sales: Yes. Sarah, do you want to talk a little bit about the program? Sure. Thank you so much. So the Book Buddies is actually a new initiative between the United Way as well as the Auburn School District. So Lisa and I work very closely with Karen DeVitro, who is the new executive director of elementary curriculum at the school district. And we're currently planning for the upcoming school year.
So what is Book Buddies? It's a mentorship program that brings together community members who volunteer their time twice a month to read to second grade students during their lunch period. The goal of this program is to encourage a love for reading, develop literacy and social skills and increase attendance and confidence. So we piloted the program at Genesee Elementary last year and saw an increase in attendance in the second grade class by 42% compared to the previous school year.
Paul Szmal: Nice.
Sarah Sales: So it was a huge success. Yes. And we're very excited because we're actually going to be adding Furman Elementary for this upcoming school year in addition to Genesee. So we're actually doing really well getting volunteers to sign up, but we are still looking for individuals who are interested in learning more about the program. And maybe you want to be a sub if someone's not able to make it.
But I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Lisa, who's going to talk more about the funding aspect of things for the program.
Lisa Kaminsky: Thanks, Sarah. So yes, as Sarah mentioned, the program has expanded to two elementary schools this year, both Genesee and Herman Elementary. And we're currently looking for different funding opportunities for the program so that we can purchase supplies for the kiddos and do some additional training with our volunteers and hopefully expand the program even more in the coming school year. So we are looking for that. The Book Buddies program is new this year. It's a designation on our pledge form for our campaign, which is exciting. So if people are really passionate about literacy projects, they can designate their pledge to the United Way to the Book Buddies program.
Paul Szmal: Nice. Very nice.
As we continue here talking with our friends from the United Way of Cayuga County, talking a little bit about the funding and financing. Well, the campaign kickoff here is just around the corner, a couple of weeks away, actually.
Julissa Stonespeicher: It is. We're very excited. It's on Saturday, September 20th. Our campaign cabinet is being led by a few familiar faces from last year. We've got Joanna Bielinski and Jenny Bartholomew, and then Brian and Mandy Jesse all returning. And they wanted to do a food truck rodeo. So we are going to be out at the Awasco Town Shelter, just behind the Awasco Fire Department, where those, that farmer's market's happening through, I think, most of September. But we're going to take over on that Saturday. We're going to have the Bearded Bear barbecue, Between Your Buns, Dugan's Country Grill, Classic Cones slash Pete's Treats. It's a combined food truck. They'll be there. A portion of proceeds from their sales will go back to the campaign.
We're also going to have our member agency fair, which is the big highlight of our kickoff. So it's an opportunity for community members to meet the different member agencies that their dollars support. I know we're just getting the registration forms in now. So like, I know BTW will be there. They have a kids activity planned, as well as the Auburn YMCA, the Auburn Rescue Mission, and the Girl Scouts. So like, the registrations are coming in. You'll see not all, but the majority of the member agencies. And you can learn more about the programs and what they do in our community. And so it'll be really exciting. It's also going to be a drop-off location for our countywide personal care that launched with the Day of Caring. So when you come out, if you want to bring some hygiene items, we are collecting them that day. And we also have $5 haircuts. We have a lot going on. I have to look at the flyer to make sure I'm not missing anything. But one of our cabinet members is a trained beautician. I think that's the word. And so she's offering $5 kid haircuts. So like, a lot of schools are getting ready for picture day. If you need to spruce up your back to school cut, that will be happening at the kickoff. And again, it's Saturday, September 20th, from 11 to 3. And it's walk in, stop out, meet with United Way. We'll have raffles. We've got lots of raffles coming in. But it's a family-friendly, fun event.
Paul Szmal: Mm-hmm. And if you've ever wondered where the money that the United Way gets, if you ever wonder where that money goes to, this is where you can find out. Because you're going to be able to see all these different member agencies that the United Way works in conjunction with.
Julissa Stonespeicher: Absolutely. And this has become my favorite part of our kickoffs. It started, I believe, in 2019, having all those agencies there so that people can meet them. Because you never know what programs or services that you or a friend or a family member or neighbor might need. And until you need them, a lot of times people don't know they're there. So it's a great opportunity to see what is available in Cayuga County. And there's a big event coming up in October. It is a nonprofit summit, the title of which is Finding Certainty in Uncertain Times, which I think is very apropos given the kind of times that we are in, certainly.
Lisa, would you like to start off telling us a little bit more about what this is all about?
Lisa Kaminsky: Sure. Our nonprofit summit, we are partnering with Catalyst-Cayuga. And we are going to have networking opportunities and workshops on how to find fundraising opportunities for your nonprofit. We are going to have workshops on our Get Connected platform, which is our new volunteer platform online where folks can go on and find volunteer opportunities in Cayuga County. And agencies can post up their volunteer needs. So it's going to be a great day for people to come together to learn from one another and hopefully take back some new knowledge to help them in their work at their different agencies.
Paul Szmal: Is this a new event or is this something that has been a part of the calendar, Julissa?
Julissa Stonespeicher: So this was started in, let's see, I started in 2017. So that was the second year. So I think it started in 2016. But then we took a few years off because of COVID. And actually the foundations, Emerson and the Allen Foundation, they reached out to us and Catalyst-Cayuga in 2023, or late 2022, saying, hey, we'd like to help you bring this back. So 23 was our first year since COVID. So it's a little bit different than it was before. But it has been a staple on the calendar since 23. Our nonprofit members who come out to this event each year really take away a lot of information and a lot of great connections through the networking opportunities. And then one of the things that I would like to emphasize is you don't have to be a nonprofit professional to attend these workshops, to attend this event. Like if you serve on a board or if you serve on a committee, if you volunteer regularly with a nonprofit and you want to learn more about how you can engage and support that agency that's really important to you, this is an opportunity for you.
So like one of the workshops is AI Tools for Nonprofits. A lot of that information can be used across different sectors. And then it's also a lot of that networking. So what's different this year versus the last two years is we're going to do a little round table discussion. It's only about half hour, 40 minutes. We're asking people when they register, what round table discussion would you like to have with fellow people focused on like marketing? What are people doing now? What are people seeing? Or different roles like the executive director role or board development, like different topics to talk with people who are struggling with similar things to find out what other people are doing, what they're seeing, what's working and what's not. So we're trying to build in some more of those networking opportunities.
Paul Szmal: Yes, this event is coming up October the 2nd. You can go and register now. The registration fee includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, and what they call peace of mind, which I think is pretty appropriate given again, finding a certainty in uncertain times title of this nonprofit summit. Julissa, where do people go to register for this summit?
Julissa Stonespeicher: So we do have a link right on the United Way website. So if you go to unitedwayofcayugacounty.org, there is like a rotor image right on the front. At the top of our website, there is an events dropdown. And one of the dropdown links is the nonprofit summit. We're rebuilding our website page. So when you go into that page, you're going to have to click another button to go to our nonprofit platform, which is powered by our GiveSmart, which accepts the registration. So it is a little bit of a long trail, but I promise everyone will not be there next year. We'll make it a one click kind of situation for you. Or you can check out the event on Facebook. The tickets link will take you right to that GiveSmart platform.
Paul Szmal: All right. Well, ladies, thank you very much for sharing the information this morning. As always, appreciate having the conversation with all of you and we'll check in next month.
Lisa Kaminsky, Sarah Sales, Julissa Stonespeicher: Thank you. Have a great day.
Paul Szmal: Yep. Have a great day, everybody. It is 828 on FLX morning.
