Lubbock Area United Way hosts campaign kickoff, sets goal at $5.8 million
Lubbock Area United Way kicked off its 2023 Annual Campaign Thursday with a luncheon at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, announcing a campaign goal of $5.8 million.
The gifts made to the campaign go toward helping the more than 121,000 people who receive support annually from United Way’s Community Partners.
At Thursday's event, Campaign Chair John Zwiacher, owner of Scoggin-Dickey Chevrolet–Buick-Subaru, addressed the 800 volunteers and supporters in attendance.
"As we kick off the campaign today, I want you to consider what being better together means for you. I want you to think about some time that someone has helped you," he said. "You couldn’t have gotten through that thing on your own. You needed someone. We all do. And that’s what United Way and our Community Partners do every day because we are better together.”
Texas Tech Head Football Coach Joey McGuire gave the keynote address. Throughout his decades of coaching football at the high school and college level, McGuire has been a proponent of community on and off the field. He and his wife are active in different nonprofit projects on the South Plains and advocate for greater athlete involvement in the community.
United Way and its Community Partners work to address the root causes of issues facing South Plains communities, such as economic mobility, inequity in education, family and personal violence, and mental health care.
JumpStart Chair Makenzie Means, with Prosperity Bank, announced the results of six local organizations that ran their United Way workplace campaigns before the start of the campaign. These include Citibus, City Bank, Frenship ISD, Lubbock-Cooper ISD, PlainsCapital Bank, and United Supermarkets. With the gifts made by these companies and their employees and other advance gifts already received, more than $1.5 million has been contributed toward the campaign goal of $5.8 million. That's about the same as last year's goal, which the United Way announced last November that it nearly broke, raising $5,637,677, the Avalanche-Journal reported at the time.
United Way’s Mid-Campaign Report Luncheon will take place in the Civic Center Banquet Hall on October 12 and the campaign will wrap up with the Campaign Celebration Luncheon on November 28. There is no charge to attend either event. Seating can be reserved at liveunitedlubbock.org/events.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock Area United Way hosts campaign kickoff, sets goal at $5.8M
