Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 817, it's FLX Morning Wednesday and it's our monthly Zoom visit with United Way of Keuka County at UnitedWayOfKeukaCounty.org. We're joined as always by Catherine Dennis and Jalyssa Stone-Spacher, ladies, good morning and welcome back.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Good morning, Ted. Good morning, Ted.
Paul Szmal: We've got lots of programs going on, tax time is here, the deadline for everybody to get all their forms from their employers and stuff is the end of this month, so that filing season will swing into gear and that's where the cash program comes in, where people can get some help. Tell us about the program.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Yeah, so it's tax time again and we are busy getting the cash site ready, again, this is a partnership with CCC and M&T Foundation. So starting next week, the IRS has said we can start preparing taxes, we have our volunteers getting their IRS certifications as we speak and this is a free tax preparation site run by volunteers. So we have a phone number that you can call and request an appointment and we'll get everyone through. This is income eligible, the site is for income eligible individuals, so the best thing you can do if you aren't quite sure if you're eligible, just give us a call and the number is on our website, but it's 315-294-8797.
Paul Szmal: And is there a need for more volunteers and if so, how can people get trained to do that?
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: We always need more volunteers, we're having a really good year, we have a lot of volunteers new and returning, but like I said, we always need new folks. So if they are interested in becoming certified, they can just give our office a call, we'll take down their information. And we do need varying levels of volunteers, you know, not all the volunteers are tax preparers, we need people to call and make appointments, we can have folks welcome people for their appointment and have the intake forms completed, which anyone can do. I even got certified myself this year, so that's just, you know, anyone can do it. There's training, we can get everyone set up with training, it's done online via a VITA tax site with the IRS, so if anyone is interested, they just need to call us and let us know, we can get them through.
Paul Szmal: Anytime I see the word brew, my ears perk up. We have February, which is a United Way fundraiser, and you can go to your favorite places you go to anyway and help support United Way.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Yes, we're really excited this year, it's something that we've been kicking around for a couple of years, and our co-chairs and our cabinet were really excited. And so we're starting off small, hopefully this will be an annual thing, but if not, it's going to be at least one for this year. We have two confirmed dates and sites, our first one, we're going to kick off down at Aurora Brewing in County South on Sunday, February 2nd, from 2 to 5. So you can enjoy a glass of beer or wine, whatever you choose, while watching the sunset over the lake, it's absolutely beautiful view, you'll overlook Long Point's vineyards to Key of the Lake, and 10% of the profits from that time period will be donated to the United Way from Aurora Brewing, but we'll of course have United Way volunteers down there, so if you want to make a donation right there in person, you can. There may be some extra elements, we're still working out all the details, but we're really excited to kick off on February 2nd down at Aurora Brewing.
And then we also have Costa's Bar on Friday, February 7th, and that is going to run from 6 to 9 p.m. The band No Filter will be there from 8 to 11, so make sure you come early, support the United Way, get your spot for the band. We are going to do a celebrity bartender, and our celebrity is our County North Co-Chair Joanna Balinski, she and her family own Auburn Crane and Rigging, so they're really well known in our community, and she's just an amazing lady, and we're really excited to be at Costa's Bar and Grill. So the tips during Joanna's shift will be donated back to us, we're going to do a 50-50 raffle here, and of course have those volunteers talking about the United Way. And then we are still hammering out the details for our County North location, got a couple feelers out, so we're hoping to share that by the end of this week. And then we're going to wrap up February at Tinker's Guild, we're just finalizing the date right now, but they're really excited to wrap up the February event, so a lot of details are still underway, but we're really excited to kick off at Aurora Brewing next weekend.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Alright, Aurora Brewing on the 2nd, Costa's Bar and Grill on the 7th, and then more details on the others to come.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Yeah. And also, what comes along with February is hockey, we've got the Crunch Night coming up on Friday, February 28th, I know, would you have like a hundred or something last year?
Paul Szmal: We did, it was almost 120, and so it's a great event. Once we hit that hundred ticket sold threshold, $10 of every ticket comes back to the United Way of Cuyahoga County, so ticket sales, they're live now, it's $20 to come, as long as you use our special link, it's, let me grab the right one, it's, well, I don't have it posted up.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Well, best way, just go to the website, it's unitedwayofcuyahogacounty.org, and just look, there's a link there for Crunch Night, easy enough to find that buy ticket button there, they're playing the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.
Paul Szmal: Yes, and we always try to pick the game against the Scranton Penguins, because the coach over there is JD Forrest, and he's an Auburn Cuyahoga County native, so a great local tie while we cheer on the Syracuse Crunch, and it's been a great event the last two years, it's kind of become an annual thing for us, and so if you, you know, it's a great opportunity to hang out with the family, a great team-building opportunity, I know our friends at the fire department usually come out a couple of the shifts, we'll come out in big groups, I know my sister's organization's looking at getting some team members together for a team-building night, so, and then of course, great time for friends.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Yeah. So, yeah. All right, go to the website, click the button, and get your tickets for the 28th.
Paul Szmal: I finally had a chance a few years ago to go to Skinny Atlas and go to Doug's Fish Fry, and it's fantastic, and the Doug's To Go fundraisers are popular all over the Finger Lakes. This one will be Tuesday, February 18th, 11 to 6, First Presbyterian Church in Weedsport.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Yeah, so we're really excited, it's, I think this will be the third time that we've done a Doug's To Go, it's a great partnership that we have with the church, as I mentioned Joanna earlier, our County North co-chair, she's been amazing at setting a few of these up for us over the last year, and so we're excited, so if you're looking for lunch, if you're looking for dinner, if you're looking for both, on February 18th, it is winter recess, so like, takes the chore out of cooking, and you get to support the United Way of Cuyahoga County.
Paul Szmal: Sounds great. Now, just give us a general update on the campaign, how's everything going?
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: So everything's going pretty well. We have about 66% of our 2,000 donor goal, so we're 660 donations away from that 2,000 goal, and right now dollar-wise, I know everyone's curious about dollars, we are at $522,000, and so between what we know coming in, we are about $40,000 away from our total that we raised last year, and so if that 660 donors that we are still hoping to join us to support the neighbors here in Cuyahoga County, if they all gave just $61 each, we would hit what we raised last year, and so it's not a huge chunk, but it is, you know, it will go to support so many in our community. Last year, 55% of our neighbors turned to a United Way-funded agency or program, and that was an increase of 5% over the year before, so the need is growing, and just to put it into perspective, that 2,000 donor goal, 2,000 is only 5% of Cuyahoga County, and so it's just all those smaller gifts coming together that really make a huge difference here.
Paul Szmal: All right. Visit unitedwayofcuyahogacounty.org, see all these events coming up, and see the impact of United Way and the agencies it funds and everything it does. Ladies, thanks as always, appreciate the visit, and best of luck busting through that goal and going well beyond.
Katherine Dennis, Angelissa Stone: Thanks, Ted. Thank you, Ted.
