The organization is set to kick-off the start of the 2025 campaign year with a celebratory event Tuesday, Sept. 9, at Tulip’s Brunch House, 186 S. Erie St., Mayville, at 4:30 p.m., with speeches from Executive Director Amy Rohler as well as former state Assemblyman Andy Goodell and his wife Lisa Goodell, who are this year’s campaign co-chairs.

The kickoff will be held in order to celebrate and commemorate the philanthropic contributions to the local community backed by United Way which has included increases in academic performance, greater financial self-sufficiency, workforce growth, and improvements to local health and wellness services. The event will begin with a video presentation titled “A Day in the Life of Your United Way Donation”, which details the impact of an individual’s donation over the course of a day. This breaks down the extent of the reach one’s donation can have when there is community cooperation and furthers transparency between the organization and its donors.

This will be the second campaign which United Way has run on a county-wide scale following their merger of the northern and southern county divisions. This merger has been incredibly beneficial towards serving the organization’s goal of helping as many as possible.

“We took our literacy week program, which was a northern program before we merged, and because we had more resources at our disposal we expanded and nearly tripled its impact,” said Amy Rohler, United Way of Chautauqua County executive director.

Amy Rohler, United Way of Chautauqua County executive director, is pictured giving a speech recently. Photo courtesy of the United Way of Chautauqua County Facebook page

The merger of the formerly separate north and south county United Ways has allowed for more cooperation and a greater impact from the organization’s 38 partner agencies and 46 programs. The United Way is also mobilizing its volunteers to review funding applications, perform financial audits, site visits and other essential functions.

“Sometimes it’s a cashier at a grocery store who’s working part-time. Sometimes it’s a factory worker. Sometimes it’s somebody who owns their own business. But we have a really generous and caring community and I’m just really honored to partner with those individuals so our community thrives” Rohler said.

For more information on the upcoming event or on how to donate visit uwayscc.org.