Stuff the Bus

This past weekend United Way staff and more than 200 community volunteers turned out to help collect school supplies for local kids in need through our "Stuff the Bus" initiative.

Over the course of Friday and Saturday, hundreds of people stopped by our buses parked throughout the region at Wal-Mart Supercenters and dropped off school supplies. By 4:00 p.m. on Saturday when the school bus drivers arrived to pick up the buses, each bus was literally stuffed. Full of crayons, pencils, paper, notebooks, pencil boxes, and more, all the things necessary for students of any age to start out the new school year with all the tools for success.

We want to thank the volunteers who came out and gave their time via two-hour shifts at the bus locations. The volunteers impact on the community is equivalent to each one of them giving more than $19/hour to work for a good cause. That means that over the entire weekend, volunteers gave back more than $11,140 worth of their time to the community. That is amazing!!

It constantly amazes each of us at how giving our community is even in economic times that are difficult, at best, for the majority of us. The Stuff the Bus program aims to ease some of the economic concerns back-to-school shopping can bring to families who are already struggling with these difficult times.

Everyone who participated this weekend truly "Lived United" by helping to volunteer and give on behalf of advancing the good of school children in our region.

If you were a volunteer and enjoyed this opportunity, we would love to hear from you so that we may share your story in the future.

Check Presentation from Masons

On July 16, the United Way was presented with a $4,000 check from Mason Hiba and his staff at Masons as a part of the "How to Live United" event that was hosted at the Masons on Joyce.

This check represents the proceeds from ticket sales and the special edition Live United t-shirt sales at Masons proceeding the event.

In all the event netted more than $10,000, and hopefully started a new tradition in our partnership with Masons and the wonderful flagship store located in Fayetteville on Joyce.

United Way Staff Volunteers for Lowell Recreation Association

On July 17, the United Way staff put on their Live United shirts and went out to volunteer for the Lowell Recreation Association. This is a group supported by a United Way program grant through our senior initiatives. The Lowell Recreation Association is dedicated to serving the seniors in the Lowell area and providing them with a good meal, comraderie, and entertainment once a month.

For many of these seniors it is the one time a month that they are around friends, and have the opportunity to socialize outside of their homes. The United Way staff wanted to help by serving lunch, picking up, and helping pass out part of the entertainment - Bingo cards!

As a staff, we were only there for one day, but the program wouldn't be possible without the help and support of the volunteers who are there everyday. We would like to thank Sonia Pile, Greg Stanfill, Missy Beeman, Chelsea Pile, Janie Wells, Rick McLeod, Kim Spencer, David Matthews, Roger Hankins and Kathy Ford for allowing us to be a part of something that they do every month.

We as a staff truly believe in Living United through giving, advocating and volunteering, and we feel that this is just one of many opportunities that we will have to go out and volunteer in our community. We hope that you join us in finding ways that you can give back to a community that works to give you so much.

Maggie Moo's Celebrity Scoop Night

On July 15, United Way of Northwest Arkansas had the opportunity to take part in Maggie Moo's Celebrity Scoop Night, which is a program that allows non-profit organizations the opportunity to have volunteers scoop ice cream and 15% of the sales go to the organization.

If you were not able to be there you missed out on some amazing ice cream and a great time!

The Arvest Private Banking group from Springdale used the Celebrity Scoop Night to get some dessert before dinner!

We were fortunate to have many local celebrities volunteer their time for the United Way. Starting out behind the counter scooping ice-cream were Dana Sargent and Courtney Timmons from Fox 24 and they were joined by Big Dan, JJ Ryan and John Baker from Cumulus Broadcasting. Big Dan was there greeting everyone who entered the door, offering them a sampling of any and all ice cream flavors available.


Next up behind the counter was Dan Skoff from FOX 24 and Chase Powers from Y94.9 to serve the crowds. Maggie Moo herself even made an appearance to help with the cause and lend her fabulous looks to draw more people in. The Celebrity Scoop Night was so much fun and all our celebrities did an amazing job keeping the customers entertained while scooping up their favorite flavors. I would have to say that the Better Batter was the most popular flavor of the night, followed closely by Cotton Candy (which, as you can see, caused many a tongue to turn blue).

A big thank you to all our celebrities that gave their time for the United Way; Dana Sargent, Courtney Timmons, Dan Skoff, Big Dan Hentschel, JJ Ryan, John Baker and Chase Powers. We also want to thank everyone who came out to Maggie Moo's to lend their support to the United Way of Northwest Arkansas.