The Tygart Valley United Way celebrated a challenging campaign year with their Campaign Celebration on February 23, 2023 at the Robert Mollohan Research Center in Fairmont. This event, which was held for the first time since 2020, celebrated the dramatic finish with $628,165 raised to help support our local community.
Over 925 individual donors participated in the annual fundraising drive with over 130 leadership gifts of $500 or more. The Emerging Leaders program saw over 45 young leaders join and the new Women United program had 28 join.
The Rotary Club of South Fairmont presented a check for $65,000 to the campaign, representing the total raised from the 15th annual Celebration of Lights this winter.
WVU Medicine- Fairmont took the top honor of the event with the “Best of the Best” Award. They tripled their giving this past year and raised approximately $15,000. Fairmont State University took home the Campaign Cornerstone Award for their continued commitment. They raised over $25,000. Marion County Schools raised over $8,100 and was recognized with the Gleason and Jean Kuhn Growth and Innovation Award. Mike and Liz Wolfe, two dedicated community volunteers, were recognized with the annual Chairman’s Award for their commitment to service.
71 businesses provided corporate gifts. Christ Episcopal Church made an extremely generous gift of $30,000 and MegaCorp contributed $15,000. WVU Medicine, Davis Trust, EQT Foundation, J.F. Allen, and XTO Energy all donated $5,000.
18 small businesses joined the Small Business 365 Circle and a total of 82 workplaces ran employee campaigns.
Fundraising events also played a major role in helping to reach the goal. Dancing with the Stars provided over $33,000 to the campaign. The Live United Auction, which was held in November, raised just over $18,000 and the Meatball Hoagie fundraiser sold nearly 1,000 lunches and raised $6,000.
Susan Rodriguez of Fairmont State University and Hanna Turner of the City of Fairmont were recognized as the Outstanding Employee Coordinators. Jim Chadwell, Debby Michalski, and Jay Michalski were recognized with the Rev. Jack “Donal” Squires Award for their unwavering commitment to the Celebration of Lights event.
The Fairmont Flyers Disc Golf Club were recognized with the first Friend of Flipside award for their partnership to the Afterschool Program. Novelis, Huntington Banks, EQT Foundation, and Arch Coal were all recognized with the United for Impact Award for their commitment to impact projects throughout the year. MVB Bank took home the Corporate Volunteerism Award for their work with the VITA program and Family Service was recognized as the Outstanding Funded Partner campaign for their 100 percent participation.
A full listing of the award recipients can be found on the United Way website at tvunitedway.org. The funding from the annual campaign helps support 46 programs at 32 health and human service agencies in Marion, Randolph, Taylor, Barbour, and Tucker counties.
