Paul Szmal: And it's 8.15 on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio, happy to be joined by Catherine Dennis and Julissa Stone-Spacher from the United Way of Cayuga County. Catherine, good morning, how are you?
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: Good morning, Paul.
Paul Szmal: Great. How are you on this sunny day?
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: Oh, wonderful. Enjoying the sunshine streaming through the studio window, actually.
Paul Szmal: Julissa, how about you? How are you this morning?
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: I'm also doing great.
Paul Szmal: Wonderful. Wonderful.
Well, let's get started by talking about an event that is coming up here within just a couple of days. So it's the last chance for you to really get tickets for this and help the United Way of Cayuga County by enjoying a night at the Syracuse Crunch. Catherine, what can you tell us about this event?
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: So this is a really fun family event that we've partnered with the Crunch on for several years. So Julissa really spearheads this one along with our campaign co-chairs. So it's a night at the Syracuse Crunch. I think Julissa's got the flyer handy, so I'll let her take over. But this is a huge benefit, and we love working with this really community-minded organization.
Paul Szmal: Yep. So the tournament is actually this Friday. The puck drop is at 7 p.m., but the doors open at 6 p.m. And they're playing against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. We tend to pick this game because the head coach for the Penguins is an Auburn and Cayuga County native. So the local connection's great, but we're there to cheer on the Crunch, of course. Tickets are $20. I was hoping to have a ticket update before this morning, but I know last week we were at 93 when I last heard. So I'm confident that we've hit our 100-ticket threshold, which means that $10 of every ticket sold at this point will come back to the United Way. So if you are looking for a fun family night, date night, something to do on Friday, it'll be a really exciting game. And our friend Jack Finley, if I'm saying his name right, from the Syracuse Crunch, he did a little video for us that we've posted on our Facebook today. He's one of the Crunch players. So they're excited to have us out and to support the United Way of Cayuga County as well.
Paul Szmal: One of the other programs that's happening right now is called Cash Hours, Creating Asset Savings and Hope. Either one of you can speak to what this program is about and how it can help people.
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: Sure, definitely. This is a great program. It's going very well this year. So this cash program is a partnership with CCC and also the M&T Foundation. So this is a free tax preparation program. It's run by a site coordinator and she is IRS certified. And then we have IRS certified volunteers preparing taxes for free. So there is some income eligibility involved, but it's a great program to get your taxes done for free, get those returns that you are owed and that you deserve for, you know, earned income tax, education credits. There's so many things available to come back to you to bring money back to Cayuga County. So again, it's being held at the CCC Franklin Street Campus. It's volunteer run, so they're not there every day. The number is on our website. So there's a line that you can call to leave a message and then our volunteers call back to set up an appointment. They are one-on-one appointments and or actually we have so many volunteers this year. Our numbers are up 31% this year. So we're really pleased that this program is being used so widely this year.
Paul Szmal: It's fantastic. Yeah, it sounds like it is a solid program for this year. That is by appointment only, by the way, you can call 315-294-8797. Leave a voicemail with your name and contact information and one of those IRS certified volunteers will get back in touch with you and schedule your appointment. Again that's 315-294-8797 to leave a voicemail. Leave your contact information and then one of the certified volunteers will get back in touch.
I know we're in the midst of the fundraising campaign, but Catherine, we're also getting ready for the whole segment of the year where the United Way determines where some of the funds will go.
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: Right, right. So, you know, the campaign that we talk about, the fundraising we do all year, this is what we live for. So our funding application, we've actually made a big change this year. So we used to fund agencies on an annual basis. I think way back when it was multi-year, but we've actually decided to go back to multi-year. So this year our member agencies will be a member agency with us for two years. So funding applications have come through with two-year program requests. So it's very exciting. We have actually received a recent history record of 43 program applications. So we have just over $850,000 in requests and that does include our mini-grant program. I always factor that in there because it's so widely used, but our fund review panels are coming together. So we've received these applications and we have community members come together on panels to review these applications and meet with the agencies to decide on funding recommendations. And this is all tied in as well with the annual fundraising campaign. Julissa, can you kind of give us an update on where that stands?
Paul Szmal: Yes. So our goal this year is 2,000 gifts. We're about 70 to 73% of the way toward that goal. So we've got about a month left to reach it. And we changed our focus to the number of gifts because we recognize that our community is struggling financially. So we didn't think that it was realistic to have a huge monetary goal, but as you heard Catherine's numbers, the dollars will always be important, but we really want to grow the United Way family. On the dollar side, when we look at what's already come in and what we expect to come in from those last foundation gifts and things like that, we expect if nothing else happens to raise about what we did last year, which was 630,000. The dollars that we give out each year are the dollars that our community gives through their donations and pledges to the United Way. And so in order to help support this increased need, we really need the support of the community to be able to give out as much as we possibly can to those programs and services. So this year, from the campaign dollars last year, 55% of the Cuyahoga County residents utilized one of those funded programs. And that was an increase over the year before of 5%. And so the need continues to grow. And so we're asking everyone, if you're able to make a gift, it can be $10, it can be $1,000. The gift amount does not matter, but if you're able to give what's comfortable for you and your family and your household, if we can get 600 listeners to make a one-time gift before March 17th, we'll reach our 2,000 gift goal. We'll raise more than we did last year, and we'll be able to support more programs than we did last year.
Paul Szmal: I know one of the big fundraisers that's coming up and one that a lot of people look forward to every year is the annual mini golf tournament, and that's coming on the horizon.
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: It is, we're very excited. So it's the 32nd annual Tim Morrison mini golf tournament. It's slated for Thursday, April 24th. We're partnering with the Holiday Inn again this year, as we have every year since 1994. We're taking over the entire first floor, the lobby, the atrium, the ballroom, the halls. And this year's theme is Broadway. So if there's any Broadway fans out there, Rev fans out there, it's going to be a theatrical experience you don't want to miss. Or if you just like to have a really good time, please come out. The mini golf tournament, it is our biggest fundraiser outside of the annual campaign. And right now we are looking for sponsors to help offset the cost of running the event, as well as three new hole architects. We changed the date from March to April, so three of our holes are not able to return this year. So if you have a business and you're interested in learning more about what building a hole entails, please give me a call down at the United Way office, 315-253-9741. But the most exciting news that I know a lot of our golf fans are waiting for is when does team registration open? And that will go live on Saturday, and E-Blast will come out from our constant contact account, and we'll start taking registration on Saturday.
Paul Szmal: And looking forward to that event, and it sounds like with the Broadway theme, it's going to be a winner for this year.
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: Oh, yes. We're very excited. I happen to be a big Broadway fan, so it was fun pulling out all my playbills to get inspiration for all the things.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. By the way, the architects for the holes now, do the holes have to be designed with the Broadway theme, or is that just like an overarching theme for the entire tournament?
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: Just an overarching theme for the entire tournament. The holes can be whatever the builders want it to be. So like our friends at Baxter, theirs is a ping pong hole. They labeled it as a Happy Gilmore theme. I'm excited because I know that they're redoing the stickers for their pinball machine. Our friends over at Extra Mile Technology, they have theirs geared toward what their business is. So there's a lot of tech equipment and lights along the perimeter. So each hole is unique. Some go with a theme. Our friends at Cuba Correctional, they usually go with whatever our theme is. They build a new hole every year, but that's not required. You don't have to build a new one every year, but they just happen to like to do that. But the holes are whatever the builders want them to be. And again, the team registration opens up on Saturday for that. So you want to get in early because that event usually does fill up.
Paul Szmal: Catherine, Jalissa, thanks very much for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.
Katherine Dennis, Jelissa Stone Spature: Thanks, Paul. Thank you. It's 826 on FLX Morning.
