By: Andy Livingston
Systems Administrator

Hey everyone, it’s Andy. I’m the Systems Administrator here at United Way of Salt Lake, and have been working here for three years now. This year, I had the opportunity to help organize our internal fundraising campaign. A committee of eight staff members worked feverishly to put together three days’ worth of activities, all geared toward helping United Way with its mission to improve lives and build strong communities. Being able to do this at our organization helps me to realize how much work goes into planning a successful campaign, and helps me to appreciate the many organizations that partner with us and put on similar campaigns even more. We want this to be a way to show our community that United Way of Salt Lake’s staff is just as committed as we ask our organizations’ employees to be.

Our theme this year was “Change,” since so much focus here at United Way has been on our transition to a Community Impact model, not to mention our work to change people’s lives for the better. To highlight this theme, one particularly fun activity/contest we arranged was dividing the staff into teams, giving them a team piggy bank, and seeing who could collect the most change throughout the week. The winning team turned in over $500 in change! I guess with a paid day off as a prize for the winning team, the competition was bound to be fierce.

Other highlights of this incredibly fun week included a staff potluck, watching our favorite “Office” episodes, and a day at Lagoon. Our day at Lagoon culminated in our very own Rebecca Dutson and Jason Castor being launched in the Catapult, and the always exciting opportunity drawing. Throughout the week, staff members purchased opportunity drawing tickets for the chance to win one of three prizes: $200 in Visa gift cards, a new laptop, or <drum roll> an all-expense paid trip for two to Atlanta, GA! The opportunity drawing tickets alone brought in almost $2,000 in contributions. Congrats again to April Harrison, who won the trip, and many thanks are due to the generous individuals who supplied not only these prizes, but the many items we were able to sell at our silent auction (which raised an additional $2,000).

It was a very busy, but incredibly fun week. We even surpassed our goal of $43,000. I anxiously await next year’s campaign!

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