By Nicholas Rabasco
SC Contributing Writer
United Way of Monroe County is rapidly approaching 75 years of assisting local residents. Since 1942, they have impacted many lives, including people of all ages, from toddlers to senior citizens.
United Way is committed to bringing children and adults together. The three key aspects that they focus on are education, income, and health.
They offer a variety of community service projects and are always looking for volunteers. As students here at ESU, we can make an impact by helping United Way and the community in Monroe County.
One of the main community service projects United Way participates in is called Day of Caring.
People from all over including organizations, companies, families, and friends come together for one day to work on hands-on projects that help support local nonprofit organizations.
The tasks that volunteers work to complete include landscaping, painting, cleaning, construction work, and food delivery.
This past September, a great impact was made: United Way had 173 volunteers, and 14 organizations complete about 1,187 hours of total work.
Another service they provide is the Department of Labor Rapid Response Team Member. With this, United Way is able to help and support employees who have been laid off from their jobs.
They work with state labor representatives and other local groups in order to help. The service is important because jobs can be hard to come by, and it is competitive out there.
In-Kind Gifts and Food Drives is something else that United Way offers.
United Way will help promote and coordinate drives for school supplies, clothing, toys, and food for distribution to local nonprofit organizations in Monroe County. United Way provides funding to Pocono Info, Monroe County’s helpline.
United Way provided funding and support for 29 programs in 2013, and you can get involved and help expand that.
There are many ways to help. You can volunteer your time and work on community service projects or simply donate money.
For more information on how to get involved, visit unitedwaymonroe.org.
As residents of East Stroudsburg, we should all strive to make Monroe County a better place to live. Teaming up with United Way is a terrific opportunity to do that.
Email Nicholas at:
nrabasco@live.esu.edu