This year's campaign for the United Way is officially underway. At a kick off event Tuesday morning, officals annouced their goal is more than 9 million dollars.
Campaign chair, Mike Parejko, says so far the campaign, starting with Birdies for Charity, is off to a good start.
"Birdies has been spectacular. 1.5 million that was raised before the match is a very, very good foundation that sets us on a really good pace coming into next year."
Last year's campaign collected pledges totaling 7.2 million dollars.
Parejko says campaign organizers also made an important change for this year.
"We've listened to donors' concerns and one of the concerns was having fees on designations. So this year, after listening to donors' concerns, we have no fees on any designated donations. So 100 per cent of designated contributions will go to the organizations or programs selected by the donor."
The United Way is now beginning the third year of a three-year effort to raise a total of 25 million dollars - 15.7 million has been raised in the first two years, with 9.2 million left to raise this year.
