Success Stories

500,000: The number of Ohioans eligible for, but not receiving, food assistance.

Part of my Vista Assignment Description (VAD) is to drive to Warren County United Way in Lebanon once a week to help them with their marketing campaign. I am supposed to be over there at 9:00, but I start at Shared Harvest at 7:30. It is about a forty-five minute drive, so yesterday I showed up at Shared Harvest, started up my laptop, printed off directions, shut down my laptop, and headed over to Lebanon.

There wasn't too much for me to do on my first day, but I'm really excited to get started. Sandy, the communication/marketing director, told me that the success stories presented on the United Way Web site are really outdated and asked me to find some new stories among the agencies that United Way financially supports. This is the job for me. I did a lot of writing in college for my school newspaper, The Post. I've been missing journalism a lot, and I don't want to get rusty, so I figure this will be good practice.

I sent out an e-mail to all of the agency directors and staff asking them to either write a success story of their own or just send me some basic information so I can put it together. I figure if I don't hear back from anyone by next week, I can start calling them and conducting brief interviews. I just wanted to plant it in their minds so they can start thinking of some good success stories.

Tomorrow is my very first training -- eep! I am a little nervous, but I have all of the necessary materials packed up and I have scribbled countless notes to myself in my benefit and software guidebooks. Plus my supervisor, Meredith, will be there to make sure I stay on the right track and to respond to any questions I'm not sure how to answer.

Social note: So how about that Kanye West? Sheesh.