United Way Telethon 2022 - What is the United Way

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - On Thursday September 1st, WAGM in collaboration with United Way of Aroostook will be holding a telethon to benefit Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Sarah Duncan, the Executive Director of the United Way of Aroostook says, “Last year we raised just over 27,000 dollars and that went just to our general fund, which gets distributed between all of our projects and all of our partners.”

Duncan is talking about the United Way Telethon held last year. She says more than 20 partners and programs benefited from this money.

“That money all went into that pot, that really helped us make our actual our first quarterly payment to them. That telethon made it possible to do that.”

The United Way of Aroostook supports programs that range from Adopt a Block and AMHC Suicide prevention to the Aroostook Agency on Aging Nutrition services and homeless services of Aroostook.

Duncan says, “The mission of the United Way of Aroostook is to find the gaps in the community, find out where the needs really are. And so we’re constantly searching and determining where, where can we make the biggest impact to impact the most people in Aroostook County.”

Duncan adds once they determine where the biggest needs are, there is an application process for the programs interested in receiving some of the funding.

“It’s a competitive grant process to be a partner with the United Way. A volunteer board comes together from all over Aroostook County that are well aware of the issues and the gaps in the communities and what needs to be addressed. And the agencies that apply, they present to the board and the boards able to ask them questions and really find out how they are going to use the money, how they’re going to stretch their dollars and how they’re going to collaborate with the other agencies in the room.” says Duncan.

In addition to the programs United Way offers, there are also several initiatives they support, like Aroostook Cash coalition tax help, stuff the bus and Santa’s sleigh project. One of those is Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. This program will be the focus of this years telethon.

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