Greater Longview United Way . org

Campaign 2001 Is a Success

Campaign Goal: $1,000,000 Amount Raised: $1,079,210

This was an extraordinary year for the Greater Longview United Way - as it was for our city, our country, and the world. Our annual fund-raising campaign began on what seemed to be the worst possible day—September 11. That morning, as the terrible events unfolded before our eyes, the campaign leadership gathered together to decide whether even to hold the lunchtime event. We decided to go on with it, though we didn't know if anyone would attend. And yet more than 700 people gathered at Maude Cobb Convention Center at noon that day. They knew that even though the world seemed to be exploding around them, they would find a sense of sharing and caring at the Greater Longview United Way's communitywide event. In the hours, days and weeks following the morning of September 11, we wondered if we were even going to come close to reaching our ambitious goal of a million dollars. Within hours, folks were sending gifts of money to the New York and Washington area, to help those victims and their families. This outpouring of generosity was unprecedented and inspiring. And yet, even while we at the United Way here in Longview were appreciative of those who felt the need to respond by sending a donation to New York, we were apprehensive that those gifts might shrink the amount of philanthropic giving that would be left for Longview and the great needs that continue here. But, as the days and weeks passed, an amazing thing happened here in Longview. The response of our own community to our own needs rose to its own unprecedented level, and at a faster pace than ever before. We reached and surpassed our million-dollar goal in early November, and by the end of the year, we had raised almost $80,000 more than that goal. During 2002, as we collect and give out those funds, we will continue to be grateful to the thousands of individuals and businesses that recognized the needs right here in Longview, and responded in such a generous way.