United Way of Greater Milwaukee held the 2012 Community Celebration on December 11 at the Pfister. The classic board game Monopoly was the theme of the event which gathered 500+ ambassadors, advocates and supporters together for an evening of community-wide education and celebration as we announced that over $51.6 million had been raised in Greater Milwaukee.

We would like to thank this year's co-chairs Greg Marcus, president and CEO, The Marcus Corporation; Peggy Troy, president and CEO, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin; and Paul Jones, president and CEO, A. O. Smith Corporation, for their tireless effort and dedication to helping us drive strategic impact in the areas of Education, Income and Health.

Special thanks to the event sponsors, The Marcus Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers and UPS for a wonderful evening of celebration. Read campaign highlights.

United Way sends a very special thank you to each Ambassador for helping with this year's United Way Community Campaign. We greatly appreciate the time, commitment and dedication you put into making your organization's campaign a success. We could not have done it without you!

Congratulations to the winners of our Give & Win Sweepstakes. This year more than 14,000 donors qualified at the $25 level and over 10,000 qualified at the $50 level. Winners were chosen randomly and announced at our Community Celebration. Special thanks to PricewaterhouseCoopers for reviewing the selection process.

The lucky winners are:

• Red Carpet Ready: Joseph Cira of Northwestern Mutual This prize included a $2,000 Boston Store shopping spree, courtesy of The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc.
• Hooray for Hollywood: Thomas Sipin from Enterprise Rent-a-Car This prize helped continue to promote our family philanthropy initiative and included a family trip for four to a Disney movie premiere in Los Angeles including airfare, hotel, rental car and passes to Disneyland® Park donated by The Marcus Corporation and The Walt Disney Studios.
• Action & Adventure: Malisa Valeriano from Sixteenth Street Community Health Center This prize included a 2013 Harley-Davidson ® Slim™ motorcycle provided by Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
• At the Drive In: Deirdre Carlisle from Harley-Davidson Motor Company This prize included a 2012 Ford Focus 4-Door Sedan SEL donated by Johnson Controls.

More than $6.7 million new dollars were raised through this year's sweepstakes. Congratulations to our winners! View pictures of winners.

Education: Volunteer on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Over the last six months, United Way of Greater Milwaukee has been encouraging our community to get involved in helping to ensure the future success of our children by serving as a reader, tutor or mentor. In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, we are currently coordinating a day of reading, history, art and fun with over 400 local children and community volunteers at our program partner agency, St. Joseph Academy.

We invite local companies to get involved and serve as volunteers for the morning (9:30-11:30 a.m.) or afternoon (2:00-4:00 p.m.) sessions to assist with reading, arts & crafts projects and group games. If your organization is interested in joining us for this unique service day please contact Karissa Kleven at (414) 263-8160 or at kkleven@unitedwaymilwaukee.org no later than January 4, 2013.

Income: 6th Annual Women's Job Seminar Empowers Local Women to Succeed
Over 130 local women participated in the free, one-day Women's Job Seminar on November 30 - the largest number of attendees in the event's six-year history. The event is a partnership between ManpowerGroup, Experis, Sojourner Family Peace Center and United Way of Greater Milwaukee to assist and empower women who currently face barriers to employment. ManpowerGroup professionals facilitated sessions on resume writing, job search basics, interviewing tips & tricks, and how to utilize social media as a job search tool.

A fashion show with professional clothing featured by Bottomless Closet took place over the lunch hour and image consultant Dana World-Patterson discussed how to put your best foot forward. Each attendee also had the opportunity to work one-on-one with a personalized resume coach. We wish these ladies the best of luck in their future pursuits!

Health: Operation Move Inspires Youth to Stay Active
On December 11, United Way of Greater Milwaukee with generous sponsorship from GE Healthcare helped to facilitate the largest Let's Move event in the country. Entitled Operation MOVE, the event engaged over 5,000 students. Special event guests included Green Bay Packer Greg Jennings; Tom Gentile, President & CEO of GE Healthcare; Dr. Gregory Thornton, Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, and Mayor Tom Barrett.

 

Students came together to focus on the importance of exercise, healthy eating and personal hygiene. Along with engaging activities and energizing performances, the event featured a six-week follow-up/at-home boot camp. Students track their fitness and healthy living tasks in a provided journal in order to earn prizes and improve their overall physical fitness and health.

ManpowerGroup Creates "Meaningful Way"
"Meaningful Work" was the theme of ManpowerGroup's workplace campaign this year which tied into a much broader company initiative celebrating the meaningful work employees do each day, on the job and in the community.

Campaign goals were set for increasing both participation and donations. To showcase their progress toward meeting these goals, a cityscape unfolded on the windows of the skywalk to their parking structure. "Meaningful Way" featured buildings, people, goal metrics and "what a generous gift can do" word bubbles. Every evening a team of volunteer staff artists added to the scene and the cityscape grew larger as the campaign dollars increased. "It was a low cost, yet very fun way to bring visibility to the campaign," stated Pam Brown, United Way Ambassador.

Kissing a Pig for United Way
That's what a few employees of the United Community Center did at its annual auction in November.

"Stewie," the 30-pound pot belly pig, was the star of the show as employees offered bids for their co-workers to pucker-up to the porcine.

Over $100 dollars was raised as gym teacher Eric Roecker and youth coordinator Raymond Riveria, both United Way program partner agency speakers, pleased the audience with a smooch on the snout of the pig. The pig-kissing auction was such a hit, that UCC plans to keep this fun event on its fund-raising agenda for 2013.

WEYCO Walks the Talk - Our Community Reaps the Rewards
Dressed as Sesame Street Muppets, the Florsheim family served chili and hot dogs to their employees on Halloween for Weyco's Annual United Way Chili Lunch. Weyco kicked off its campaign with a guest appearance from former pro athlete Norm McGee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. Tom Florsheim Jr. also made a personal appeal for employees to join his family in Living United, and sweetened the pot by sponsoring a "paid day off" raffle for employees making an early-bird pledge. The result was a record-setting total of both overall giving and employee participation. Hats off to Weyco and the Florsheims for all their great work!

V.E. Carter Child Development Group, Inc. Learns to Rise Above
The V.E. Carter Child Development Group, Inc, a child development/childcare agency was recently broken into and some of its United Way donations had been stolen. Knowing that every dollar is important to United Way and our community, CEO Markus Watts, covered the stolen donations himself. Despite this trying set back, the group rallied back with 100% employee participation. Thank you to Markus Watts and the staff at V. E. Carter Child Development Group for exemplifying what it truly means to Live United. 

Dates to Remember - Stay Involved