THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510170084
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Long : 165 lines
AFTER WORKING WITH children for several years, Marg Hickman knows how important it is for them to feel loved and cared for.
But at some point, the site director at the YMCA's before- and after-school day-care program at Carrollton Elementary School thought independence took over.
At least, Hickman thought that until she ran into one little fellow recently who mentioned that he'd soon be moving on.
``He looked up at me and asked, `Who's going to take care of me in the afternoons when I move to middle school?' ''
That very question - who's caring for the children? - posed by a boy not quite ready to grow up was the catalyst of a major move four years ago when the United Way was organized in this rural county.
It was the county School Board, concerned about working parents' children at home in empty houses each day, that first raised the question some time in 1990, says Connie Rhodes, executive director of the Isle of Wight/-Smithfield/-Windsor Chamber of Commerce.
That first question led to a needs assessment in the county, and that led to the opening of a lot of eyes and, eventually, to the United Way, Rhodes says.
``We discussed it in our board, and we talked to different people, like those involved in Social Services. We determined that there were many real needs in Isle of Wight. But day care was obvious, very apparent.''
It was also apparent that everybody who needed day-care services couldn't afford it, and that's where United Way came in.
The community-based, charitable-funding organization was helping to run day-care facilities in other localities through the YMCA, Rhodes says. So, with then chamber President Ted Lawson, she took their chamber committee first to the Peninsula United Way and then to the United Way of South Hampton Roads to determine which could best help the county meet its needs.
Ultimately, the chamber committee charged with organizing a fund-raising effort that each year would spread Isle of Wight residents' contributions throughout the county decided to affiliate with United Way of South Hampton Roads.
Since the initial organization in 1991, contributions to the Isle of Wight division of United Way have grown steadily, from $26,000 collected that first year to more than $77,000 last year. The Isle of Wight goal for the 1995 campaign is $90,000.
So far, to help the local campaign get off the ground, the county effort has not been charged administrative costs by the regional United Way. And now in its fourth year, the county has its own United Way promotional brochure.
Before Isle of Wight County officially became part of United Way, local residents who worked at government installations and shipyards throughout Hampton Roads contributed to United Way, but those contributions were channeled to the localities where they worked, not to Isle of Wight.
A good example of this is the Surry Nuclear Power Plant in Surry County, with a host of generous, civic-minded employees who live in Isle of Wight. The funds raised there were directed toward a United Way campaign outside the area.
``Bringing United Way to Isle of Wight has helped direct the funding and the benefits of it,'' says Pat Branche, director of fund raising for both the Suffolk and Isle of Wight divisions of United Way. ``We've done what we can to get the money back where it belongs, where it can expand the services.''
Much of the corporate support that first year came from one local employer: Smithfield Packing Company, Branche says. From there, it has continued to grow.
In the southern end of the county, Windsor Mayor Bobby Claude has worked diligently each year since United Way started, Branche says. Community Electric in Windsor held the first local employee campaign, adding corporate support to what had been a mostly residential-based fund-raising effort.
Since then, employee participation from major businesses throughout the county has increased each year.
Oliver D. Creekmore, executive vice president of the Bank of Isle of Wight, can only sit back and nod his head in approval.
``It's very important, when you make a charitable donation, to see where your money goes and how much good it does,'' says Creekmore, known as ``Ollie,'' now in his second year as chairman of the local effort. Bank of Isle of Wight has been involved in the local United Way since it began. ``There are a lot of things happening, affecting a lot of people. And all funds donated by Isle of Wight people stay in Isle of Wight. That's an agreement we had from the very beginning.''
Before United Way here, agencies that offered services in the county were operating without local financial support. Now that has changed.
``The education process is one of the hardest things we've had to do in Isle of Wight,'' Creekmore says. ``There are needs here, and those needs should be met. These agencies will come in and support those folks that can't otherwise handle it themselves.''
But that's not the only way the local campaign is helping local people.
Maude Johnson, president of the Luretta Johnson Memorial Missionary Circle at First Gravel Hill Baptist Church in Rushmere, sees examples of Isle of Wight people reaching out to help their neighbors almost daily. Her organization is charged with administrating the food closet at the church, made possible by the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, a United Way agency.
``We can get a call any time for emergency help,'' Johnson says. ``We've been handing out food once a month. Beginning in January, we'll distribute twice a month. The food closet is there for the needy in the community, for those who are sick or can't work, for low-income couples and those with children. When somebody in need calls, we will get them some food.''
Robert Bishop, director of the Zuni Training Center, a school for mentally retarded young people, says he sees neighbor helping neighbor each time one of his residents reaches a new goal.
And Judy Saunders, leader of Girl Scout Troop 688, realizes that many of the activities her girls enjoy would be impossible without proper funding.
``I wish more girls could be involved,'' Saunders says. ``I think it helps them to be more well-rounded. They get some things they don't get in school.''
The theme for this year's United Way campaign is ``Angels Among Us.''
In this county, it seems the angels are everywhere. ILLUSTRATION: [COVER]
CARING FOR THE KIDS
[Color photo]
ON THE COVER
Chelsey Barnes and Christina Conover ``hang out'' with day-care
staffer Christina Castonquay in a photo by staff photographer John
J. Sheally II.
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Curtis Deesee shares his wildflowers with day-care staffer Leslie
Bryant.
Showing her uniform to classmates at Carrollton Elementary is Sarah
Ann Rawls.
Ginger Jacobson, right, works with Amy Robertson at Kentucky Fried
Chicken in Smithfield. Jacobson and Robertson are from the Zuni
Training Center.
Maude Johnson stocks the food bank at First Gravel Hill Baptist
Church as Walter Hardy keeps inventory.
Connie Rhodes with the Chamber of Commerce
Ted Lawson helped get United Way started.
Pat Branche, director of United Way fund raising
WHAT UNITED WAY FUNDED
More than $77,000 was pledged in the third annual Isle of Wight
County United Way Campaign last year. Funds were distributed through
the United Way allocations process to the following agencies based
on a needs assessment in Isle of Wight County:
American Red Cross $2,500
Christian Outreach Program $10,000
Edmarc Hospice for Children $3,500
Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia $3,000
Genieve Shelter $2,000
Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast $3,000
The Salvation Army, Suffolk Corps $1,500
The Salvation Army, Isle of Wight $1,500
SEVAMP Senior Services $5,000
Society for the Aid of Sickle Cell Anemia $3,000
YMCA - Isle of Wight Before and After School Care Program and
Summer Camp $22,500
Zuni Training Center $1,500
Designations to other agencies totaled about $10,000; of that,
the largest recipients were the Boy Scouts of America Colonial
Virginia Council and the Franklin Children's Center.
by CNB