Celebrating 75 years: Lubbock Area United Way marks milestone, honors volunteers
Lubbock Area United Way hosted its 75th Anniversary Celebration as part of its Annual Meeting and Volunteer Recognition Thursday at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
United Way recognized David Alderson with the Rita Harmon Volunteer Service Award. The award has been presented each year since 1993 to honor deserving individuals for a lifetime of community service.
Alderson has been a dedicated community volunteer, supporting United Way, Texas Tech University, the efforts to revitalize downtown, and other organizations. Alderson served as the United Way Campaign Chair in 2012.
Alderson said it was a very humbling day for him and thanked his friends, family and associates for the recognition.
“Each of you are here today because you're volunteering and have a wonderful gift; and as The Beatles said, the amount of love you take is equal to the amount of love you make,” Alderson said.
Mark Griffin, 2021 Campaign Chair, announced that $6,000,183 has been contributed to help support United Way’s Community Partners.
These contributions will impact more than 115,000 lives across the Lubbock area in the coming year. Since 1946, more than $205 million has been given by generations of West Texans supporting local nonprofit agencies, families and individuals across the South Plains, Griffin said
“Obviously, this is a group effort - there's the campaign cabinet, loan executives, speaker's bureau, campaign coordinators, and countless others who decided to make a conscious decision to do good and decide that they want to be part of this campaign,” Griffin said.
The 75th Anniversary Chair, Heather Smith with United Supermarkets, was recognized for her role in leading the past year’s celebration. Smith committed three years to the project. Her extensive experience in project management helped set the right scope, pull together the volunteer team, and pivot plans during the pandemic. She also authored the commemorative publication, “Building a Better Lubbock”.
“It was truly my honor to chair the 75th anniversary, I love the United Way I love what they stand for,” Smith said.
Lisa Thomason with the City of Lubbock was named the 2021 Campaign Volunteer of the Year during the event.
Thomason has volunteered to chair the city’s employee campaign for three years and is a member of Women United and is an active supporter of United Way. In 2021, Thomason and her team of “Rally Leaders” led city employees in a campaign that raised $150,041, 38% over their goal and the highest dollar amount ever given by city employees.
Karen Bosscher with the YWCA of Lubbock received the award for the 2021 Community Partner Volunteer of the Year. Bosscher volunteers as a bus driver for the YWCA for children with special needs. Her role has provided critical support to the organization during current labor shortages.
The United Way board leadership team for 2022 were also introduced during the event including Becky Palmer as Board Chair and Laura Vinson as Campaign Chair. Also serving on the Executive Committee are Amber Dean, Board Vice Chair; Chris Boutwell, Treasurer; Dr. Nathaniel Wright, Community Impact Chair; Amy Punchard, Marketing and Communications Chair; and Brad Burgess, Endowment Chair.
In addition, United Way announced new board members Matt Ernst, Becky Garza, Jobi Martinez, Kevin McConic, Kristin Murray, and Rick Rodriguez.
The 2021 Annual Report is available online at www.liveunitedlubbock.org/annualreport or at the United Way office.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Celebrating 75 years: Lubbock Area United Way marks milestone, honors volunteers
