By By Paul Keane
Publisher
It is definitely crunch time for the Atmore United Fund.
This year's campaign is still short of reaching the amount that was distributed last year. What that means, in a nutshell, is that the possibility of funding to programs could be cut this year if the needed money isn't raised.
Atmore helping Atmore is what it is all about, and we can and should all come together this week to help insure that every organization supported by United Fund gets at least level funding for this year.
The reasons for the shortfall are numerous. Vanity Fair and it's nearly $21,000 donation of last year fell by the wayside when the plant here closed. The economy has been in a downturn, which it has, and money is tight. Businesses and corporations are cutting back on their donations because of that tight economy.
All very legitimate reasons that carry a lot of weight. All the more reason we need everyone in town to come together and make this year's campaign a success.
We're not looking for heavy hitters or someone to donate one large chunk of money. That would be nice, but it's not feasible in these economic times. Instead, we want a lot of people doing just a little bit. If we accomplish that, then all those small amounts will add up to be a very large amount by the time we – and by we I mean the entire Atmore community – wrap this campaign up.
We've basically got one last shot, that being the "rock-a-thon" set for Nov. 19 at United Bank. If we all pull together, we can put up some numbers that will astound this community.
The premise is simple – any business or organization and put together a team that will rock in rocking chairs in shifts from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Pledges, either by the hour or straight pledges, will be taken for the event by each team.
Any team raising $100 will have its name placed in a drawing for various prizes. Right now, the only known prize is a free half-page ad in this paper. Let's see if we can't get other businesses to donate prizes to add into the drawing.
Companies such as Pepsi, Frontier, Masland, Swift Lumber and Alto have made some large contributions, not only to this campaign but to the community as a whole. We need all businesses – even small ones – to pitch in and either put together a team or donate some prizes to the drawing. That's why this paper is putting its money where its mouth is.
As one big team of smaller teams, we can raise the money to keep all the local organizations funded at least at the level they were funded at last year. Let's do it.
Call Caroline Crane at 368-2525 to sign your team up or to donate a prize to the drawing.