Wednesday afternoon representatives of the member organizations and the leadership who lead the United Fund of Surry gathered on Main Street in downtown Mount Airy to celebrate another successful campaign.
Melissa Hiatt, executive director of the United Fund, welcomed the group into the new office space for the organization upstairs at 232 Main Street and encouraged everyone to channel their inner child with a cupcake to celebrate another successful campaign.
Campaign Chairwoman Traci George helped deliver the good news that the United Fund surpassed its goal of $550,000, raising $559,371.
Mount Airy City Manager Darren Lewis, who was the campaign chair the previous year, congratulated George for besting the goal and teased that he won their one-on-one bet to see who could have the larger percentage of increase over the previous year. Hiatt had promised a friendly rivalry between the two when she announced George as the chairwoman last year and the two did not disappoint. There was some good-hearted ribbing if that was actually the terms of the “bet” between the two, but it was clear that they both enjoyed the task of being chairperson and helping raise money for the United Fund of Surry.
Last year the goal for Lewis was $500,000 and the campaign reached $533,000; in the 2021-2022 campaign John Tarn of Xtreme! Marketing was challenged to raise $430,000 and managed to bring in $471,000. So, while the goalpost has been moving year to year, this community has stepped up, Hiatt said.
She has worked in 18 counties in the non-profit sphere and said she has found more success in fundraising in Surry County than even places with larger populations. When the goal is to help people, she said folks rise to the occasion. “This community always opens its pocketbook to take care of people.”
For that reason, the goal and amount raised have been going up year to year. “When I first came to the United Fund, I said would love for us to get to where were raising a million dollars a year. I did the math and at $50,000 increments, that’s nine years and I’ll be 66 years old — I’m not staying until I’m 66,” Hiatt said. She joked that if there are business owners out in the community whom she does not know that she needs to get to know them.
While there is not a firm target date to reach the $1 million mark, Hiatt said she wants to speed up the process and cut those nine years perhaps by half — or more.
Hiatt said in a change of pace that the entire campaign committee from this year would be returning for the next campaign meaning that George will be leading the 2024-2025 campaign push that has already begun. Joining her again will be Ashley Moorefield, Sam Holder, Angel Haynes, Denise Brown, Steve Yokeley, Darren Lewis, Kendra Griffin with Bottomley Enterprises’ Emily Cave being the lone joiner onto the leadership committee.
“Usually when you get to the end, folks are done. It’s like ‘My time is up, see ya.’ But it was such a blessing for them to agree that we had a good year, we felt that with the energy we had rolling that they could continue to keep going and us raise even more next year,” Hiatt explained.
“On behalf of the City of Mount Airy, what the United Fund does and the impact it makes with all the different agencies in our community, we are so fortunate for what it does for Mount Airy and all the other municipalities throughout the county,” Lewis said.
Hiatt agreed, “It is the people of this community that make this community special. We have beautiful artwork, beautiful downtowns, we have lots of great things to offer that other places don’t, but it’s the people that make it special.”
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