United Way Campaign Strives to Impact Mahaska County

United Way of Mahaska County

United Way of Mahaska County’s annual fundraising campaign is going on now, but this year, it’s about more than just dollars.

Executive Director, Amy Langdon, says the focus this year, and hopefully for many years to come, will be about having an impact on the lives of the people we serve.

“We no longer just want to be the group that collects money and distributes money to other organizations doing good things,” says Langdon. “We want to ensure that everything we do is helping make lives better.”

Doing this means looking at the community as a whole and seeing what gaps need to be filled.

“We were hearing a lot about there being a need for transportation, people were struggling to get where they need to go. Or a lot of people were talking about there not being enough done to help with childhood hunger. So we started to look at those issues and trying to think about what we could do together.”

Out of these discussions came two new initiatives this year – Oskaloosa Summer Lunch and Oskaloosa Rides.

Oskaloosa Summer Lunch, through the support of several community partners, launched this summer with a goal of helping ensure kids and teens have access to healthy meals.

“It was a great first year,” says Langdon. “We not only served 2,400 meals, but volunteers did lots of activities with the kiddos, like science experiments, reading, outdoor games. It was just a great place to eat and play.”

Oskaloosa Rides, a new fixed-route bus service, began in July with a goal of meeting transportation needs. Hundreds of people in Oskaloosa don’t have regular access to a vehicle and can struggle to get to places offering healthcare, retail and human services.

But Langdon wants to assure supporters that the backbone of United Way hasn’t changed.

“The majority of our money still goes out to support our partner agencies. They are doing amazing things in our community and we are very lucky to have each and every one.”

Langdon says the best part of all the new programs is that the community has a way to get involved – Volunteer Mahaska, an online database of volunteer and donation needs.

“I’ve always said that there are lots of people in Mahaska County who want to help,” Langdon says, “but there was no easy way for them to find out how to help. With Volunteer Mahaska, in a couple clicks you can know that 4-H is looking for mentors or the Klothes Kloset needs volunteers.”

To donate online, go to our website unitedwaymahaska.org and click on the GIVE button, or for more information, you can call Amy Langdon at 641.673.6043.