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United Way making an impact in the community

STEUBENVILLE – Beth Rupert-Warren believes the United Way of Jefferson County is about more than just giving money to local agencies.

“Yes, we have exceeded our campaign goal for the past two years and hope to do so again when we start our next campaign later this year. But I also believe we have a mission to provide an impact on our community,” said Rupert-Warren, executive director of the United Way.

Rupert Warren announced seven community grants have been awarded to local programs in addition to the funding for the 18 United Way partner agencies.

“We received community grant requests and were able to provide $9,000 to those groups. The Youth United in Christ was awarded $1,500 to help offset the cost of providing a youth summer camp that serves approximately 60 people. Another $1,500 was provided to the Family Service Association to beautify and update the playground area at the downtown facility and to purchase learning supplies and equipment for the Family Service Association,” explained Rupert-Warren.

Additional monetary awards were issued to:

The Kidney Foundation of Ohio, $1,500 to provide seven Jefferson County kidney patients with $200 in assistance to purchase medications or nutritional supplements necessary during dialysis;

Four Seasons Ministry, $1,000 to purchase a television, game system and toys to put in its youth room;

The Cancer Dietary Initiative, $1,500 for the purchase of food to be distributed on a monthly basis to cancer patients;

The Jefferson County Humane Society, $1,500 to assist low-income Jefferson County residents with spaying and neutering their pets; and,

The LaBelle Neighbors Who Care, $500 to help offset the cost of youth summer activity programs.

“We are very excited to fulfill our role of making an impact in the county and to help bring the community together,” Rupert-Warren said.

She has also helped organize the Jefferson County Community Partners, an organization that held its initial meeting in June at the First Westminster Presbyterian Church.

“We asked participants at that first meeting to bring their business cards and organization brochures so we could all get to know each other. We are reaching out to all ministers and pastors to ask them to join us. This is a major effort to bring all social service agencies and church leaders together in one room to talk about how we can work together. We can do so much more for the people of the community as we learn how we can assist each other,” said Rupert-Warren.

(Gossett can be contacted at dgossett@heraldstaronline.com.)

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