EUREKA AREA UNITED FUND
Dear Friend of the Eureka Area United Fund:
Each year, the Eureka Area United Fund (EAUF) solicits funding applications from organizations and agencies in the community that provide various types of social services to area residents. The EAUF board also conducts interviews with agency representatives and service providers to gain insight regarding persistent needs. The combined effect of this work produces a type of “state of the community” assessment with respect to social services in the area—an analysis that is often eye-opening yet sobering. This appeal is drawn from a current analysis of community concerns with the hope that we can assist our neighbors who struggle and may be in need.
It is easy to become complacent and view our community in an idyllic sense as a place that is sheltered from the harsher realities of the world. Unfortunately, truth often speaks in the silences that mask many of the lingering difficulties experienced in many households. We might find it challenging to believe that domestic violence, food insecurity, mental health crises, problems associated with addiction and recovery, and alienation and loneliness wrought by social isolation exist within our neighborhoods, but they do. Even more challenging for many is the uncertainty they face about what pressures the new day might bring as they experience isolation among, but not within, a community.
We are fortunate to have a vital network of social service agencies in our community that exist to remedy many of these pressing concerns, and this appeal is designed to fund their important work. We are equally blessed by the continuing generosity of this community over the past few EAUF campaign cycles. For the past three years now, we have raised funds that exceeded our campaign targets, and this allowed us to fund agencies at a higher percentage than initially planned. We ask for your continued support as we prepare to launch our 2023-24 fund-raising campaign.
We recognize that some of you are not in a financial position where you can support this year’s Eureka Area United Fund campaign. We would not expect you to do so. For those of you who feel that you have the means to assist, we ask for your support and appeal to that generosity of spirit that has long characterized our communities. The funds that we raise will be spent exclusively in our communities—none of these funds will be sent off to cover administrative costs of a national organization. Our goal is to raise funds locally to serve local needs. Please join us in accepting the challenge that these difficult times call for a special sense of stewardship; we can be “neighbors helping neighbors” who rise to face the challenges of these uncertain times by helping strengthen the social bonds that link our community.
Sincerely,
2023-2024 Eureka Area United Fund Board
Junius Rodriguez, President; Liz Danner, Vice President; Dana Wherley, Treasurer; Diana Nichols, Secretary; Caitlynn Bane; Darci Beachy; Stephanie Bishop; Susan Bressner; Dennis Capretz; Joe Cunningham; Chris Hughes; Dawn Maloney; Janelle Perry; Rebecca Rossman; and Bill Schulz