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Residents Don't Forget Local Needs
(The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 18--BLOOMINGTON -- During a year when McLean County residents responded to the needs of people elsewhere, they didn't forget the folks at home.
Residents dug deep and social service agencies responded, from donations and help for survivors of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, to a record-setting United Way of McLean County fund-raising campaign, to construction of a new lodge for campers with disabilities at Timber Pointe Outdoor Conference Center.
"We are amazed at how the community rises to the occasion every time," Scott Vogel of the American Red Cross of the Heartland said in September as donations poured in for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
Within two weeks of Katrina's landfall, McLean County area residents had donated more than $470,000 to the Red Cross national disaster relief fund -- and most was funneled through the Heartland chapter. After corporate gifts were factored in, local donations to the Red Cross to assist hurricane survivors totaled more than $1.5 million.
But help wasn't limited to money. About 70 Heartland chapter volunteers from several Central Illinois communities spent weeks in Gulf Coast states helping hurricane survivors.
Meanwhile, nearly 200 Katrina evacuees came to McLean County and were provided vouchers for food, personal care items, clothing and shelter, said Red Cross executive director Lyn Hruska. PATH (Providing Access to Help), Recycling for Families, Home Sweet Home Ministries, United Way of McLean County and The Salvation Army were among agencies trying to meet intermediate-term needs, such as apartments and furniture.
Once services were provided, PATH and United Way matched families with churches for continued support. Since last fall, some hurricane survivors returned home, some have relocated elsewhere and some have remained in McLean County.
Good neighbors
As McLean County residents and agencies assisted Katrina survivors, they continued to help other neighbors as well.
United Way of McLean County's annual fund-raising campaign -- which began in August and ended in January -- surpassed its $4.2 million goal by raising $4,221,136,
"It's a testament to the people of McLean County that they were able to continue their annual commitment to meeting local needs when so many other deserving causes were calling for their support," United Way Campaign Chairman Kevin Marti said in January when the final total was announced. Marti is senior vice president of life and health operations at Bloomington-based Country Insurance & Financial Services.
The final dollar figure is 5 percent more than the amount raised in the fall 2004 campaign.
Money will help support 47 programs runs by 29 local social service agencies, including programs that assist the homeless, people with disabilities, children and families in crisis and older adults.
Construction of The Lodge at Timber Pointe Outdoor Conference Center at Lake Bloomington began in September after $2 million was donated or pledged in a four-year fundraising campaign led by Bloomington-Normal's four Rotary clubs.
Easter Seals, which owns and operates Timber Pointe, hopes campers with disabilities from throughout Illinois who use Timber Pointe will begin using the lodge by September. The lodge will house a storm shelter and medical and food service facilities.
Timber Pointe served 1,700 campers with a variety of disabilities in the summer of 2005.
Volunteer triumphs
Among other volunteerism triumphs of the past year included:
w $135,000 raised during November's Festival of Trees to benefit The Baby Fold, the Normal-based child and family support agency;
w 21 community projects completed, 153 feet of canned goods given away, 400 volunteers, and 965 units of blood and $11,000 donated during ShareFest on Sept. 9-10;
w $373,834 raised for the American Cancer Society by 1,500 walkers at the annual Relay For Life of McLean County on June 24-25 at Normal Community West High School track.
In January, PATH, the Bloomington-based organization that provides crisis information and referral, senior services and homeless services, celebrated its 35th anniversary. PATH's 24-hour anonymous crisis information and referral hot line took more than 50,000 calls in 2005.
As PATH remained focused close to home, Chestnut Health Systems continued to expand its focus.
In September, the Bloomington-based agency entered into a joint venture to create the first China-based company offering employee assistance services in the growing Chinese marketplace. Psychcn-Chestnut Global Partners is based in Beijing, China, providing employee assistance programs (EAPs) to Chinese employees of multinational companies, Chinese businesses and Chinese government-owned businesses, said Russ Hagen, Chestnut chief executive officer.
While Chestnut began in 1973 as a drug and alcohol dependency treatment program, its services have expanded to include EAPs, credit counseling, research and publications.
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