United Way Thank You Celebration Recap and Award Recipients

Wednesday night, the conclusion of the 2014 Marshfield Area United Way Campaign was celebrated at Hotel Marshfield. Campaign Drive Chairs, Brian and Beth Kief, happily announced that the $830,000 goal was met with the campaign total coming in at $833,136. The celebration also recognized numerous businesses and individuals whose contributions to this year’s United Way campaign played a pivotal role in its success. 

The first awards given last night were the Community Vision Awards. These awards recognize workplace campaigns that raise $10,000 or more. The following companies raised more than $10,000 toward this year’s campaign:  BMO Harris Bank, Central City Credit Union, City of Marshfield employees, Festival Foods, Figi’s, Inc., Forward Financial Bank, Prevention Genetics, the Marshfield School District, and V&H, Inc./Heavy Trucks. Felker Brothers Corporation and Staab Construction received Community Vision Awards for their campaigns totaling more than $20,000. The Dental Clinic of Marshfield and Roehl Transport were recognized for raising more than $30,000 and Nelson-Jameson, Inc. for raising more than $40,000 for United Way. Both the Marshfield Clinic and Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital received the Community Vision Award for their campaigns bringing in over $100,000 each, respectively.  Thank you to all of the companies who received Community Vision Awards for your leadership and significant contributions to Marshfield Area United Way.

The Participation Award recognizes the top companies with the highest percentage of employee participation. The Small Business Participation award was awarded to Heritage Bank with 100% of their twenty-two employees contributing to the United Way Campaign. The Medium Business Participation award was presented to BMO Harris Bank whom also had 100% of their employees contribute to this year’s Campaign. Festival Foods received the Large Business Participation Award with 86% of their 241 employees participate in their United Way Campaign.

The Increased Giving Award recognizes the top companies with the highest per capita and overall campaign increase. The awards for Small, Medium, and Large Business were given to the following companies:  Heritage Bank (small), BMO Harris Bank (medium), and Nelson-Jameson (large). Heritage Bank has the highest giving per capita than any other company at $300 per person. BMO Harris Bank’s per capita is $297 per person and Nelson-Jameson’s per capita is $225 per person.

United Way recognizes companies that have taken great strides in improving their United Way Campaign with the Achievement Award. Two companies received the Achievement Award this year as both of them increased their campaigns by more than 50%. Congratulations to Target and the Child Care Center of St. Joseph’s Hospital on being named the recipients of this year’s Achievement Award.

The Campaign of the Year Award is given based on several criteria:  a company that makes a corporate contribution and/or conducts an employee campaign, the total amount of funds raised, an increase in giving, and most notably, if the business went above and beyond with activities and events to raise money for their campaign. The Small Business Campaign of the Year Award was given to a company that has received this honor seven times in the past 14 years, Heritage Bank. The Bank and its employees are a wonderful United Way supporters and community partner.  The Medium Business Campaign of the Year Award was given to a company that increased their giving by 52% over the last year and hit the $10,000 giving mark for the first time in company history, Prevention Genetics. The last time the company who received the Large Business Campaign of the Year Award was in 1996. This year, the company’s campaign raised over $128,000 and was the most in their long history of giving to United Way. Congratulations to Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital on a phenomenal Campaign that featured everything from cookie sales to shaved heads!

None of the success of the annual United Way Campaign would be possible without the thoughtful, diligent work of many volunteer employees that represent United Way within their own company.  The Employee Campaign of the Year Award honors outstanding individuals who coordinate their employer’s workplace campaign. These individual generously give additional time and take on extra responsibilities to help United Way throughout the Campaign season. This year, Kristina Bohn and Heather Schmidt from Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital were recognized as Employee Campaign Coordinators of the Year. These two ladies have dedicated hundreds of hours of their own time for the past several years and United Way couldn’t be more thankful to have individuals like these two ladies represent United Way within their organization.

Last, but not least, the award for Volunteer of the Year was presented to a dedicated group of individuals. The Volunteer of the Year Award was established to recognize volunteers who go above and beyond the call of duty and service for Marshfield Area United Way. The AARP Tax Aide volunteers are recipients of the Volunteer of the Year Award for 2014 and are comprised of fifteen individuals who gave over 2000 hours of their time to offer free tax preparation assistance to 676 low to moderate income individuals. 

While it is an honor to recognize the many businesses and individuals who truly were pivotal in the success of the 2014 United Way Campaign, United Way extends its deepest gratitude to everyone who contributed to this year’s campaign. With your support, tens of thousands of individuals will receive support through United Way programs and initiatives. Thank you for your caring of this great community.