How to prevent a flood of problems

Tom Draggoo says it is time for Lane County residents to build a dam.

Chairman of the 2010 United Way of Lane County fundraising campaign, Draggoo was speaking figuratively during the agency’s annual campaign kickoff breakfast at Lane Community College on Tuesday. He likened the flooding Springfield used to get decades ago, before dams were built on the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, to the flood of community issues hitting the county during the rough economic times of the past couple of years.

“If the whole community feels stress, you end up with a community flood,” said Draggoo, branch manager at Siuslaw Bank in Springfield.

Therefore, the community must use the building blocks of education, income and health to “build a dam upstream” and “prevent a lot of issues that become floods later,” Draggoo told the 250 community leaders in attendance.

United Way staff and volunteers from the business community said this year’s campaign will not be easy given the ongoing recession, especially because there have been more requests for funding than ever this year. But with the right message, local companies, organizations and individuals will once again find it in their hearts to give, they said.

“It’s only work that we can do together,” United Way executive director Priscilla Gould said. “We need each and every one of you to be there at the table and in the trenches.”

United Way of Lane County has received $1.5 million in requests this year that it has no money to fund, Gould said.

The annual campaign — spearheaded by a team of “loaned executives,” employees from prominent area businesses and organizations plus community volunteers — routinely raises more than $4 million each fall, and has set a goal of raising a never-before-reached $5 million in recent years. The 2006 and 2007 campaigns came close, both raising $4.9 million. In 2008, $4.4 million was raised. And $4.2 million was raised last fall.

This year’s goal is $4.4 million, Draggoo announced Tuesday. That would be a 5 percent increase over last year, he noted.

Draggoo said he was “shocked” when he heard there were no funds for $1.5 million in requests this year. That’s unacceptable, he said. “So I’m going to be dedicated to ensuring that the Live United Fund will be able to meet all needs,” he said.

The Live United Fund is how the agency channels money raised during the campaign into the areas of education, income and health, part of its long-term plan to reach specific goals by 2020 that include: a majority of children entering kindergarten with age-appropriate literacy and social/emotional skills; a greater percentage of low-income households living above 200 percent of the federal poverty line; and connecting at least 15,000 uninsured county residents to more affordable health care.

Funds raised during the campaign flow into the “building blocks” of education, income and health that support nonprofit agencies and programs such as Kids in Transition to School, Birth to Three, the American Red Cross, Centro LatinoAmericano, HIV Alliance, Volunteers in Medicine and many others.

Gould also announced a new United Way-supported program, 211 Lane County (www.211lane.org), that was launched Sept. 1. It’s a call center, reached by dialing 211, that connects residents in need with various social service programs. It’s based on a system established in Portland a few years ago.

Another new program is “The Road to Recovery Fund” established this year to raise extra money in light of the recession. The Oregon Community Foundation, the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce and the Bi-Mart Corporation raised more than $180,000, Gould said.