One of the most important functions of the United Way of Kent County is that it helps their community solve problems. Whether that be supporting the Character Counts!, providing critical funding for the Community Food Pantry, or keeping programs for the intellectually-challenged going in the wake of government cutbacks, the United Way has been playing this important role for sixty years, and the cumulative results of their excellent work can be seen in almost every community nonprofit in the area.
So it is a bit ironic that the United Way has a problem of its own.
Gone are the days when almost everyone working in a small town, and certainly every company, large or small, would rally around the annual United Way campaign. Nowadays, as the list of nonprofit organizations and community needs grow, the United Way finds itself competing for recognition and awareness of its important role in keeping plays the Kent County community functioning.
That is one of the reasons that Glenn Wilson, CEO of Chesapeake Bank and Trust and United Way’s current board president, helped recruit Bob Grace, president of the Dixon Valve Company, to take on the honorary chair position for the United Way campaign during this special anniversary year.
It was an excellent choice for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most compelling was the fact the Dixon Valve, from its very first days in Chestertown, not only donated generously to the United Way campaign but sustained a significant employee match program so that all of their staff could participate.
The Spy caught up with Glenn and Bob a few weeks ago at the United Way’s headquarters on Upper High Street to talk about the United Way at 60, and what an extraordinary asset this philanthropic project has for our community during that time.
This video is approximately three minutes in length. The current list of grantees for this year are listed in this program.For more information on the United Way of Kent County please go here.
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