Celebration 2020

Celebration

 

Please join us in celebrating our volunteers, donors, and community partners, and all the good work that's been done in Ottawa and Allegan County in 2020!

 

 

G.W. HAWORTH STRENGTH OF THE COMMUNITY AWARD

 

United Way’s top Honor, the G.W. Haworth Strength of the Community Award is a “lifetime achievement award” that recognizes an organization, family, couple, or individual that exemplifies United Way’s leadership spirit of volunteering, philanthropy and community decision-making. Congratulations Ottawa County!

Click to watch the Video!

 


VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Congratulations to our Volunteer of the Year – Volunteer Emergency Response Team (VERT)!

This group of 231 volunteers has done some important work this year, and we are grateful!

 

Click to watch the Video!

 

 


VOLUNTEER STARS

Look at these lists of amazing volunteers!

We are so grateful for each and every one of you who donated of yourselves to help in our community.

 

 


RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS

Please join us in honoring the volunteer Relationship Managers who work with local businesses to meet their community engagement goals.

These volunteers act as liaisons, meeting with their accounts to plan fun, effective workplace campaigns, offer engagement/volunteer opportunities, and provide information about local resources like 211 and so much more. They nurture these relationships on behalf of United Way because they understand the positive impact on our community when we LIVE UNITED.

 

 


GOLD & SILVER AWARD

Greater Ottawa County United way is pleased to announce the 2021 Gold & Silver Campaign Award recipients.

We are proud to partner with these truly outstanding companies and nonprofit organizations. It is our honor to recognize them for their important contribution to our community.

   

 


ABOVE & BEYOND AWARD

Congratulations to the 2021 Above & Beyond Award recipient, Pliant Plastics United Way Committee.

This group has gone above and beyond to add excitement to their campaign and encourage volunteering.

Click to watch the Video!

 

 


COMMUNITY BUILDER AWARD

Announcing the 2021 Community Builder Awards - Children’s Advocacy Center and Pliant Plastics.

Thank you to these organizations for their year-round partnership with United Way!

 


OUT OF THE BOX AWARD

Congratulations to the City of Grand Haven for winning the Out of the Box Award this year!

This award is given to the organization with the most creative approach to engagement with United Way. This year, Grand Haven City Manager, Pat McGinnis, spent the night in a bucket truck when his team met their goal.

Thanks to all the City staff for thinking outside the box and supporting our community!

 

Click to Watch the Video!

 


PINNACLE OF PARTNERSHIP AWARD

Congratulations to Community Action House, winner of our Pinnacle of Partnership Award!

Throughout this pandemic, Community Action House has taken care of the needs of those in our community who have been struggling the most – and they continue to do so.

Watch this video to see the important work Community Action House has done in the last year.

And THANK YOU to the staff of Community Action House!

 

Click to watch the Video!

 


COMMUNITY IMPACT COMMITTEE

This group of individuals is crucial to overseeing the Impact Area of United Way. This year, they stepped up and met monthly allocation decisions throughout the pandemic.

THANK YOU Community Impact Committee!

 

 


COMMUNITY INVESTMENT AWARDS

Congratulations and THANK YOU to the winners of our Community Investment Award!

Community Investment is unique process we use to ensure that community-raised dollars are invested in programs that align with the United Way's four key impact areas – Education, Financial Stability/Basic Needs, Health, and Affordable Housing.

 

 


LAKESHORE HOUSING ALLIANCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

THANK YOU to this group of individuals that are crucial to overseeing the work of the Lakeshore Housing Alliance!

 

 


CAMPAIGN CHAIR

Our heartfelt thanks to the 2020-2021 Campaign Chair, Keith Van Beek!

A longstanding advocate of United Way’s efforts, he has served on our Board of Directors since 2013 in roles including Treasurer and Chair. As a government leader and long-time resident, Van Beek brought a wealth of knowledge of local community needs, is an advocate of building strong partnerships, and has a vision of growth and prosperity for a better life for all residents in Ottawa County.

Under Keith's leadership our fundraising efforts fueled our COVID response and recovery, ensuring accesses to vital services like food, shelter, mental health services and so much more. Thank you Keith, for your leadership!

 

 


LYNN SHERWOOD LIGHTHOUSE LEADERSHIP AWARD

We are proud to celebrate Midge Verplank, the recipient of this year's Lynn Sherwood Lighthouse Leadership Award!

Midge has been a beacon of light for our community, personally investing time, talent, and treasure to make West Michigan a great place to live and work. Midge's lifetime of finding solutions for community problems and always being a light that this community could reply on, particularly in a pandemic year, is why Greater Ottawa County United Way selected him to receive this award. On behalf of all the neighbors who have made it safely home thanks to your light, we thank you, Midge!

And thank you to www.hoeksmaphoto.com for creating this stunning award.

Click to watch the Video!

 


STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Every three years, United Way does a Community Assessment. This group of individuals is crucial to to making this assessment come to fruition.

THANK YOU to our Steering Committee Members!

 

 


 

SPONSORS

 

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD

While all of our volunteers are stars, tonight we want to highlight the winners of our Volunteer of Year, Mike & Ann Roth!

Click to watch the Video!

 

 


VOLUNTEERS

Here at Allegan County United Way, we are so grateful for our dedicated volunteers! Check out this video to see the awesome work they did for our community in 2020.

 

Click to Watch the Video!

 


SILVER AWARD

We want to celebrate our Silver Award Winner – Allegan County Community Mental Health!

Allegan County Community Mental Health Services is a part of this community’s safety net, and the people we serve are supported by many organizations funded by the United Way. As we do our work to support children, adults and families with mental illness, intellectual/developmental disabilities, substance use disorders, emotional disturbances and meet housing needs, we are also privileged to support other crucial services through our United Way contributions. We are a part of the wider Allegan County team!

 

   

 


SPONSOR

We want to celebrate Perrigo, the 2021 sponsor of our Imagination Library. To date, Perrigo has helped deliver over 3,000 books each month to kids ages 0-5 across Allegan County.
Thank you, Perrigo, from all of us at Allegan County United Way for the way you are helping in our community!

 

 


COMMUNITY BUILDER AWARD

Congratulations to Perrigo Company plc, the winner of the Community Builder Award! To receive this award, an organization needs to meet five out of five campaign award criteria regarding the performance of its campaign and its engagement with Allegan County United Way. 

Thank you for all you do to support our work and help make our community the best it can be!

 

 


EARLY LEARNING INITIATIVES

We want to take a moment to celebrate our Early Learning Initiatives! Dolly Parton's Imagination Library will help you read with your child. There are many reasons parents do not read to their child, but we can eliminate one of them. Every child will have books of their own, at no cost to you, thanks to Allegan County United Way and Volunteer Center and Dolly Parton. This program is available for children up to the age of 5. Little Free Libraries are produced by United Way, with the help of volunteers, and in partnership with local schools and businesses. The libraries create access points to reading materials in key locations all around Allegan County.

If you are interested in sponsoring a Little Free Library in Allegan County, get more information here: https://www.acuw.org/little-free-libraries

 


PINNACLE OF PARTNERSHIP AWARD

Congratulations to the Allegan County Community Foundation and Community Action of Allegan County on receiving our Pinnacle of Partnership award for our work together on the Allegan County Feed the Need Coalition in 2020! The true spirit of collaboration drove our ability to combine our resources and create real solutions to the dire effects that the COVID-19 crisis has had on our community, including the very organizations providing critical aid to our most vulnerable neighbors.

We know we could not have done this without you and are so very grateful for your partnership, especially in times like this!

 

Click to watch the Video!

 


BOARD & COMMITTEE

We would like to recognize and celebrate our very dedicated board members!

 

 


COVID RESPONSE TEAM

We celebrate our volunteers and partners who rose to the occasion to provide relief to the Allegan community as needs have arisen throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thank you for your all you've done!

 

 


GOODS DONATION CENTER

In response to the needs that arose in our community at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, we opened the United Way Goods Donation Center (GDC) at our location in Allegan County.

Through partnerships with the Allegan County Food Pantry Collaborative and Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo, the United Way GDC distributed over 50 tons of food, personal care items, and PPE to pantries and families across Allegan County in 2020.

The work continues, and we thank our partners and community for your support and sustaining generosity!

 

 

 


IMPACT REPORT

The 2021 Impact Report is here! Allegan County United Way fights for the education, health, and financial stability of every person in our community. Using the data from our impact reports allows us to develop and implement a wide range of solutions to meet that goal.

 

Click here to view the 2020 Impact Report.