Year-end opportunities to give back to Charlotte County
by Angie Matthiessen, Executive Director – United Way of Charlotte County
The depths of solitude and loneliness felt as a hospital patient during the holidays is heartbreaking. However, the simple act of singing Christmas carols can be enough to stoke the fires of hope and joy and warm those lonely hearts.
Singing to hospital patients on Christmas Day was undoubtedly one of the most formative experiences of my life. The memory of seeing eyes light up and weary frowns lifting into smiles has stayed with me all these years later as I have walked the road of the helping profession for my career path.
After completing my degree, several years and several jobs later, I would walk the halls of the cancer unit at the local children’s hospital and marvel over the joy expressed by the children and their families with the simple gifts they were able to enjoy during the holiday season. My perspective on hope changed forever. I saw those simple things, viewed through the eyes of a hopeful child, as truly the biggest things.
Fast forward to 2022.
Dec. 20 marks my five-year anniversary as the Director of this amazing United Way of Charlotte County (UWCC). Having spent the three years prior as the Development Director, I reflect now on what this journey has meant to me.
To be honest, I’m not the best person at asking for things. It is all about the relationship for me. I believe that if you understand who we are, what our mission is and the heart behind it, you will be compelled to join us – with time, talent, treasure. Oftentimes, the message can get lost in the written word, a social media post, a ten-minute presentation. If I could sit and have coffee with all y’all (my Tallahassee and Georgia roots coming out here), I believe you would agree.
We hear stories in our office daily of families who work hard yet are living in a shed or in their cars with young children, not knowing when the lights on a Christmas tree in their home will shine joy for them again. It is truly heartbreaking, one story after another.
As this year winds to a close, you have likely been asked by many nonprofit organizations to contribute to their mission to serve. As a team, we have struggled with the ask this year, when we have already asked and received so much, and when we know so many people are hurting.
In the time I’ve been at UWCC, the way that we raise dollars has drastically changed especially in the last two years. Access to employee campaigns, a very traditional fundraising tool for every United Way, is significantly on the decline. Employees are struggling, as are many of the businesses themselves. Some of my favorites have closed up shop since Ian came through. This makes it even more difficult to ask.
Yet there have been many relationships built in the last several years with incredible organizations, foundations and individuals who continue to step up with investments into our United Way, growing our capacity for the work we do here in Charlotte County and I’m so grateful. Not everyone can contribute, but those who can have joined us in our mission.
UWCC has served and will continue to serve Charlotte County for many years, mobilizing the power of our community to break the cycle of poverty – one block, one home, one person at a time. My simple ask this year is that you join with us to make a collective impact on our community. Opportunities big and small are described at unitedwayccfl.org/give.
We are here, your friends, joining you, believing for our sorrows to turn to joy and our weary to hope this season and always. For me, Christmas is and always will be about HOPE and believing for a better day. Thank you each and every one of you for all you do to lift up this community we all love.
For more information about United Way of Charlotte County’s mission: Mobilizing the power of our community to break the cycle of poverty, please contact Angie Matthiessen, Executive Director. She can be reached at director@unitedwayccfl.org.