PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 21, No. 6, Sept. 20, 2001

UI employees’ caring community stretches around the world

International Service Agencies is working to prevent the two million childhood deaths that occur every year due to vaccine-preventable diseases.

Sanjin was a teenager when war broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Life became a daily struggle for survival. One day Sanjin even witnessed the deaths of some of his best friends. To support his family, Sanjin sold goods on the black market; he also worked in a hospital treating casualties of the war.

In 1996, Sanjin became a staff member at an International Service Agencies member charity, where he helped provide medical assistance and other desperately needed services to victims of the war.

Today, Sanjin is a college honor student at DePaul University in Chicago, where he is dedicated to his studies and dreams of some day helping others in his war-torn homeland. Sanjin has become a "success story" – someone who learned how to help himself and then extended that helping hand to those around him.

People plagued by poverty, homelessness, violence and hunger receive desperately needed services and assistance from these charities so they can begin building better lives for themselves and their families, just like Sanjin.

However, even those of us who are not needy benefit from the services provided by these organizations through environmental-protection programs , recreational programs and educational opportunities.

A common misconception about the Campus Charitable Fund Drive is that it only includes organizations supported by the United Way.

In reality, there are 13 umbrella agencies that receive donations through the fund drive. These agencies represent more than 591 charities. Some of these organizations are right here in Central Illinois; others extend their helping hands to people around the nation and throughout the world.

The Charitable Fund Drive theme – U & I: Partners for a Caring Community – emphasizes the importance of individual commitment in building strong communities. Through our monetary support of Campus Charitable Fund Drive agencies of our choice, we can provide needed services and assistance to others here at home or in a tiny village thousands of miles away. We can support causes we care about – whether that means literacy or funding research for a specific disease.

Nearly 19,000 men, women and children with developmental disabilities in Illinois take advantage of the sports opportunities available through Special Olympics Illinois.

Every year since 1929, UI faculty and staff members have demonstrated their commitment to building a better world by consistently giving more than was asked of them. Last year, with a record-high campaign goal of $875,000, UI employees’ donations to the Campus Charitable Fund Drive exceeded $1 million.

This year’s monetary goal is an ambitious $950,000, and UI employees are being challenged to give even more than in past years.

Sometimes it’s tempting to shrug and assume that your little gift won’t make much of a difference, that your co-workers will provide all the support these agencies need. If we haven’t given before, now is our opportunity to affirm causes and values important to each of us through our financial support of Campus Charitable Fund Drive agencies of our choice.

Through our gifts to the Campus Charitable Fund Drive, each of us can demonstrate our commitment to being good friends and neighbors by helping provide life-sustaining and life-enhancing services and programs here at home and far away.

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