Just one week into the Sarnia-Lambton United Way campaign and already $505,000 has been raised.
Director of Development and Communications Ryan Doyle said they're at 33 per cent of the $1.5 million goal.
"We're on pace with last year," said Doyle. "We are little nervous going into this year. We know a couple of our traditional campaign events are not going to happen this year, so we know there's a gap we have to fill up, so we are kind of doing that hustle to try to find new stuff."
The annual fundraising effort officially kicked off last week with the 30th annual Day of Caring.
"We had a very successful Day of Caring," said Doyle. "We did a lot of great work around the community which was super cool, 125 volunteers at 20 different locations."
Doyle said they're preparing for a challenging campaign given the state of economy and the impact from U.S. imposed tariffs.
"So COVID hit us pretty hard, we lost a slew of events," said Doyle. "We lost a lot of workplaces who had started doing non-traditional campaigns and stuff like that, so that hit our bottom line pretty hard. Tariffs coming in now, we're nervous that businesses are nervous. If they are worried about their bottom line, they're not going to run an employee campaign, and if they don't run an employee campaign, we're not going to make goal."
The United Way provides funding for 28 local programs offered through 16 agencies across the community, including Big Brothers Big Sisters Sarnia-Lambton, Inn of the Good Shepherd, Lambton Elderly Outreach and Rebound.
The annual campaign runs until the end of the year.
To find out more, or to donate visit the United Way's website.
