Media Relations

February 24, 2010

As reported in the GazetteXtra.

Those attending United Way of North Rock County’s annual meeting Feb. 17 learned that so far $1.2 million had been raised toward the 2009 campaign’s $1.35 million goal.

The announcement was made by Phoebe Tobias and John Pearse, campaign co-chairs, according to a United Way press release.

“Despite the (economic) challenges, this year’s campaign was a huge success,” Tobias said. “In a time when all of us are feeling pressure, the caring people of north Rock County stepped up again and again to support their friends and neighbors in need.’’

Because more than 70 percent of campaign dollars are raised through workplace campaigns, United Way recognizes employee groups that achieve notable levels of participation and giving. Recipients of this year’s Employee Group Awards for outstanding support of the people of this community are:

-- Gold awards: Employee groups with at least 60 percent participation and $85 per capita—Adams Elementary School; Air Products; Alliant Energy; AnchorBank; Arrowhead Library System; Bank of Edgerton; Bank of Milton; City of Janesville—city manager’s office, economic development department and neighborhood services; Coldwell Banker SUCCESS; Community Action; Data Dimensions; Edison Middle School; Feingold & Read, LLP; First Community Bank Milton; Home Entry Services; HospiceCare; Jackson Elementary School; Johnson Bank; Kitson & Gaffney S.C.; M&I Bank Edgerton; Parker Community Credit Union; Rock County—administration, county clerk’s office, deferred prosecution office and real property description department; Roethe, Krohn, Pope, LLP; Salvation Army; Save-A-Lot Foods; Senior Services of Rock County; Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board; ThyssenKrupp System Engineering; United Parcel Service; United Way of North Rock County; Washington Elementary School, and YWCA of Rock County.

-- Silver Awards: Employee groups with at least 50 percent participation and $50 per capita—Associated Collectors; Blackhawk Community Credit Union; Bliss Communications—The Janesville Gazette and WCLO/WJVL Radio; Boston Store; Boy Scouts of America-Glacier’s Edge Council No. 620; Catholic Charities; Children’s Service Society; City of Janesville—community development department, engineering department, information technology department, fire department and public works/technical services; Consigny, Andrews, Hemming & Grant S.C.; Fagan Chevrolet; Harris Ace Hardware; Janesville Community Day Care; Jefferson Elementary School; Logli Supermarket; Madison Elementary School; M&I Bank; Partners in Prevention; Rock County—coroner’s office and emergency management; Rock Energy Cooperative; Roosevelt Elementary School; School District of Janesville—educational services center; Van Buren Elementary School and Wells Fargo Advisors.

-- Bronze Awards: Employee groups with at least 40 percent participation and $25 per capita—Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLC; City of Janesville (overall); City of Janesville—police department and water utility; DEBCO Corp.; Franklin Middle School; Harrison Elementary School; HealthNet of Janesville; HUFCOR; Janesville Sand and Gravel; Lincoln Elementary School; McGladrey & Pullen; Monroe Elementary School; Robert W. Baird & Co.; Rock County—human resources department, information technology department, land conservation office and surveyor’s office; Rock River Charter School; School District of Janesville (overall); Schwartz & Shea Insurance; Sedor & Hoag, S.C.; SSI Technologies; US Bank, and Wilson Elementary School.

-- Best Practices Campaign Award: This award honors the workplace that most closely demonstrates United Way’s best practices techniques in planning and implementing its campaign. Data Dimensions ran a model campaign, achieving 80 percent participation and a 12 percent increase over last year, raising over $40,000.

-- Geraldine Hedberg Tocqueville Society Award: The United Way’s most prestigious volunteer award was presented to Paul D. Benish of M&I Bank.

Officers elected

The business portion of the meeting included the election of the organization’s board of directors and officers:

-- New members, elected for a three- year term were: Bill Boyd, Boyd Consulting; Karen Schulte, School District of Janesville; and Kerry Swanson, St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital.

-- Returning members, elected for a second three-year term were: Craig Knutson, Rock County.

-- 2010 board officers are: Lynn Gardinier, board chair; Barry Badertscher, board vice-chair; John Pearse, board treasurer; Gail Graham, president, United Way of North Rock County, board secretary; John Pearse, immediate past chair.

For more information on United Way, visit uwnrc.org or call (608) 757-3040.

As published in the January issue of Brava Magazine

Please click the image below to download the entire article in .pdf format.  marcy_gathy_brava.pdf 2.90 Mb

December 24, 2009

As reported by Gina Covelli in the Sun Prairie Star.

The holiday season is the time for giving, for sharing a little warmth and comfort. The students at Sacred Hearts School spent the entire month of December gathering up as much warmth and comfort as possible in the form of teddy bears to donate to HospiceCare as part of the Dori Bear Project. 
 

Every year the students at Sacred Hearts participate in an Advent community service project. In the past they’ve collected items for the Sun Prairie Emergency Food Pantry, had giving trees, had fundraisers for the Humane Society and more. 
 

This year, “we wanted to do something different,” Toni Smith, Sacred Hearts librarian, said. While Smith was not a member of the Advent Project Committee, she presented the idea of collecting Dori Bears for this year’s project to the committee.
 

“My mother was sick for about two and a half years, and at one point of it, she had to go into Hospice,” Smith said. “At that time, the grandchildren and she were all given a Dori Bear.”
 

The Dori Bear namesake is given to all teddy bears donated to HospiceCare in honor of HospiceCare patient Doris Klubertanz, who died June 1, 1994. While alive, Doris Klubertanz was surrounded by teddy bears. She believed in their power to bring warmth, love and a smile. Because she found them to be such a comfort, she left a gift to HospiceCare to establish the Dori Bear project.
 

Dori Bears great patients as they enter their rooms in HospiceCare’s Inpatient Unit and accompany staff members and volunteers on home visits.
 

Smith’s mother, Jacqueline Peterson, first went into HospiceCare about six months ago for in-patient care. Last month, she went into Hospice for respite care for about five days. During her second stint at Hospice, Smith said she noticed there were very few Dori Bears left. 
 

“The very first time we went to Hospice, my kids and I wanted to raise bears for this,” smith said. “And the second time we went in and saw there were hardly any bears, I brought it to my kids’ scout troops and our school, and it’s a huge success. We’ve collected hundreds of bears. It’s phenomenal.”
 

The students have been collecting the bears since Advent began on Nov. 29, and the collection drive will end at the start of Christmas break. The Dori Bears will be delivered to Hospice by the Sacred Hearts Daisy Troop in January. HospiceCare distributes a minimum of 2,000 bears a year. 
 

“It was so funny, I brought an example of a Dori Bear in and the very next day Stephanie [Schoenberger, Advent Project Committee Member] had three in her room,” Smith said. “It’s just such a comfort. Everybody just loves it and I’m so glad we were able to do this.”
 

Smith’s mother passed away Dec. 6, 2009, and “we had our bears until the end at our house,” Smith said. “It was right next to her until she died.” 
 

For more information about the Dori Bear Project, call HospiceCare at (608) 276 – 4660 (Madison) or (608) 755 – 1871 (Janesville); or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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November 26, 2009

As reported by Pat Schneider in The Capital Times

The economic recession is registering at local thrift stores. Administrators of these emporiums of recycled goods report brisk business as shoppers on tight budgets look for bargains. “Sales are up. We’re doing very well,” says Kathleen Mannlein, director of retail sales for Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Executive Director Ralph Middlecamp reports that the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Madison is “just holding our own” with its thrift stores. The customers are coming, but the supply of donated merchandise is not as good as it has been in better economic times, he says. “People are not buying new things and it limits what we have to offer in our stores. We’re putting out things that are not quite as good as customers are used to. We can’t sell them for as much.”

Resale stores of all kinds attract shoppers trying to make ends meet, as well as those with a taste for bargains. Beyond that, Dane County’s dozen thrift shops offer customers a dual opportunity to support nonprofit organizations: revenues from thrift stores fund the missions of the charities, and tax-deductible, donated merchandise stocks the stores. Some also say that shopping thrift stores is an act of protest against the consumer culture.

Many charitable organizations rely on end-of-year donations for a significant part of their funding. Thrift stores, too, do well at the end of the year, starting with shoppers looking for the makings of a Halloween costume right through holiday decorations and Christmas gifts.

“Last month was our best month ever,” says Alice Hanson, manager of Bethesda House of Thrift on Madison’s east side. She thinks her store, which moved three years ago to Cottage Grove Road after two decades on the north side, is seeing first-time thrift shoppers adjusting to drops in income. “If there were two workers in the family, and they’re down to one, they’re looking to save money.”

Thrift stores typically offer such basic goods as clothes, furniture and housewares, as well as books, vinyl albums and CDs. Many shoppers interviewed in store aisles recently say they have shopped thrift stores for years, but some add they are doing it more often during the down economy.

“I’m doing it this year a bit more,” says Leanne Carson of Madison, shopping for Christmas decorations at the Goodwill Store in Nakoma Plaza on the west side. Medical bills put her family in debt and she is cutting costs wherever she can, she says.

Carson says the merchandise in the store this season looks good, but she can appreciate that some stores might be reporting a drop in donated goods. “I’d think twice about donating a couch this year. I’d put it on craigslist and get the few extra bucks.”

At St. Vincent de Paul’s flagship thrift store on Williamson Street, Linda Kingsley says she bought the jeans and sweater she was wearing on a past shopping trip there. She has shopped at the store for years, but even more in recent months. “The jobs closed up and I’m only working part time,” she says. “I’m just barely making it.”

Strong sales are important to the nonprofit organizations that run the thrift stores because they are a significant source of revenue.

Judy Purcell, manager of the HospiceCare Thrift Store on Junction Road, said sales rose 15 percent to 20 percent as the jobless rate soared about six months ago and have stayed high. The store, in its fourth year, provides about $400,000 a year to support patient and family care by HospiceCare Inc.

About 70 percent of Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin’s $11.5 million in revenue in 2008 came from its eight area stores. The organization serves the disabled and elderly in 14 counties. “We’re very much reliant on the retail revenue,” says Mannlein. “We can’t do our work without it.”

St. Vincent de Paul of Madison nets about $500,000 a year from its five Dane County stores to support its food pantry — the county’s busiest — and other programs for the needy. The agency also gives thrift store merchandise like clothing, furniture and housewares to people who don’t have money to buy such goods. And that demand has spiked in the past year. “We’ve given away more than ever before,” Middlecamp says.

In order for donors to take income tax deductions for their gifts to thrift shops, the store must be run by a 501(c)3 charitable organization like Goodwill, St. Vincent’s, HospiceCare or Bethesda Lutheran Communities for the developmentally disabled.

Door Creek Church of Madison runs a thrift shop, Boomerangs, and will use its revenue to support the work of the Salvation Army of Dane County, The Road Home and Nehemiah Corp., three local charities tied to faith communities. “We were looking for a new way to raise funds to distribute to organizations in the community,” says Randy Olson, director of outreach for Door Creek Church. The store has been open just over a year, and has not yet cleared operating costs sufficiently to make a donation, Olson says.

Madison has two for-profit thrift stores — at West Towne Mall and near East Towne Mall — operated by Savers, a multinational retailer of used goods. Savers purchases donated merchandise from local charities, allowing donors to take a tax deduction and providing an added incentive for people to shop at its stores. In Madison, its stores partner with Easter Seals of Wisconsin, which expects to bring in about $200,000 from its sales to Savers this year, according to Easter Seals Executive Vice President Nance Roepke.

Ken Halstead of Richland Center loves books, which is why he was perusing the shelves at Goodwill in Nakoma Plaza, where he found some non-fiction titles at very low prices. Halstead loves getting a good deal on good books.

He used to hesitate about using thrift stores, he says, because it felt like by getting a bargain he was taking something from someone who needed it more. “That’s not true,” Halstead says today. “It supports charitable efforts. It’s green. So ethically I like it. Now, whether it’s good for an economy of debt and waste …”

So to his thinking, the countercultural aspect of shopping thrift stores makes it a win for everyone.