Posted in News on February 10, 2016 Allocations Week a Success

The five Allocation Panels of the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley have completed their work last week of visiting their assigned United Way member agencies as they prepared to recommend how the United Way Campaign dollars are to be distributed.
The Allocation Panels are made up entirely of volunteers. When the visits were completed, the panels made their funding recommendations to the Allocation Panel Executive Committee, and that volunteer group will send its recommendations to the volunteer United Way Board of Directors.
During the visits, the panel members met with the agencies’ directors, several board members, and financial officers. The panels reviewed the agencies’ funding requests, and hear how the agencies use the United Way funds to serve their clients. Panel members also toured the agencies to see first-hand how the agencies function.
The Catholic Charities 18th Street Neighborhood Center was the first stop Feb. 1 for Panel A. They met Andrea Staron, the new Northern Regional District director; Pam Campbell, assistant director of operations; and other staff members who discussed the Center’s operations that handle 91 percent of cases served in the district that includes
Marshall, Ohio, Brooke and Hancock counties. All services provided are free to the clients.
The Panel learned, among other statistics, that the Center has six employees and relies on approximately 200 volunteers to serve the clients. Two Americorps volunteers also are working at the Center. Campbell told the panel that clients help with various chores in the building.
The Center serves meals to about 100 persons per day, seven days a week. Volunteers drive seven routes to deliver 175 lunches six days a week.
Jeff Correll, an employee of Axiall, is serving his first year as an Allocations Panel member.
“I’m a strong giver at church, but I don’t have much experience with the United Way,” he said. “I wanted to see what it was about.”
He was highly complimentary to the Center’s organization, and praised the cleanliness and appearance of the facility.
“They are passionate about what they are doing,” he said.
Jessica Zeigler, a student in the new Community Education Program at West Liberty University, who served last year on the Allocation Panel, said the opportunity to serve “is an extremely eye-opening experience to see what the charities in Wheeling are doing. I didn’t know a lot of the non-profits existed.”
Zeigler said the experience ties in very closely with her West Liberty studies, as the program focuses on working with non-profits and areas of education.
For more information about the United Way, please call 304-232-4625.