Cambridge is a fantastic place to live. Divided neatly in two by the mighty Grand River, it has beautiful neighborhoods and lots of great places to work, (like Fibernetics for example). Tons of recreation both inside and out, there are also great restaurants, fabulous shopping and due to its central location, easy access to all the great things the rest of Southern Ontario has to offer.
It’s why it’s one of the fastest growing communities in all of Canada.
Yet Cambridge, despite all those positives, also has a shocking number of its population living in poverty.
One in eight children fall into that category.
That’s why organizations like The United Way of Cambridge and North Dumfries are so important to the community. They set a very aggressive $2.3-million fundraising goal for 2013 and local residents and businesses are getting behind their all-important mission. There are 24 separate local agencies who rely on money raised during the annual campaign, collectively helping one-in-three members of the Cambridge community.
United Way Volunteers with Fibernetics President Roy Graydon
Fibernetics is working with the United Way and its partner agencies, like the Food Bank, with a number of fundraising campaigns. This morning we had a company breakfast featuring two United Way workers who were explaining the importance of their organization to Cambridge as a whole.
Alex Lourenco is on a three-month “loan” to the United Way from her regular job working on the floor at Walker Exhaust (which is a very cool thing for them to do by the way). She explained how all money raised is directed to the United Way’s three priorities:
All That Kids Can Be
Poverty To Possibility &
Healthy People, Strong Communities
Alex was followed by Divya Handa, who emigrated from Kenya thirteen years ago, and after very tough childhood, is a recent Honours BA graduate and is currently working on a Masters degree – all with the help of various United Way programs and agancies.
Each of our communities has disadvantaged or underprivileged people living in them. They are all our neighbors and each one of them can benefit from the United Way. Please log onto Unitedway.ca and see how you can help in your community.
