By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

Although the official theme of this year's State Employees Federated Appeal (SEFA) campaign is "Recipe for Success," the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon provided an additional context for those attending the campaign's annual kick-off event on Sept. 20.

 

	Jeffery Reeves of the Buffalo City Mission gets acquainted with Harley, the snake, at a booth set up by the Audobon Society, a United Way agency, at the SEFA kick-off event in the CFA Atrium.
	Photo: Jessica Kourkounis

"As we begin our 2001 campaign for SEFA, we all think back to last Tuesday's events and the tragedy," Mary Gresham, vice president for public service and urban affairs, dean of the Graduate School of Education and 2001 SEFA chair, told unit liaisons assembled in the Center for the Arts Atrium. "One thing I would like us all to think about… is that the agencies represented by the United Way are agencies that deal with tragedy and distress year round. And indeed, this year in particular, they will need our support much longer than this week, or the end of the year because people will be grappling with the results for a long time."

The liaisons—faculty and staff members who volunteer to lead campaign efforts in their individual units—gathered to pick up campaign materials and learn more about how money raised during the campaign makes a difference to local agencies and organizations supported by SEFA and the United Way.

UB's goal this year is $725,000. The campaign raised $763,979 last year, more than $60,000 above the goal of $700,000.

With the terrorist attacks paramount in everyone's minds, those attending the kick-off event heard how United Way agencies are responding to support those affected by the tragedies.

Katherine N. Lwebuga-Mukasa, associate director of Crisis Services, noted that her agency has been responding to Western New Yorkers who have been directly affected by the events of Sept. 11. "We forget how many ties there are (in Western New York) to New York City and even to Washington, D.C.," she said. Many other United Way agencies volunteered their own counselors to man Crisis Services' phone lines, "which were lighting up, and continue to light up," she said. "Daily we receive calls for our trauma response unit to respond to people who are unable to get out of their cars to go into work because they're afraid to go into a tall building.

"I want you to remember, as you dig deep this year, that the needs are many," she told the liaisons. "We have the ongoing needs that our agencies provide for the people in our community, but we have increasing needs in terms of how we as a nation begin to address this terrible trauma that has afflicted us."

Ann McCarthy, chair of the 2001 Buffalo and Erie County United Way Campaign and director of consumer affairs for Wegmans, pointed out that following the terrorist attacks, Crisis Services experienced a 30 percent increase in the number of calls it usually receives, and that most organizations and businesses would have difficulty absorbing a 30 percent increase in their workloads. Many United Way agencies were in the same situation last week, McCarthy added.

"Over and over again as campaign chair, in these past few days, I've heard business after business tell me that they didn't know what to do, and United Way agencies were there to help," she said, urging those who do not know which United Way agency to designate their money to channel it to the Community Care Fund, which provides money to smaller, lesser-known agencies.

McCarthy said that since Sept. 11, she's been hearing people ask what they can do to help. "I'm here to tell all you good people at the University at Buffalo that you were there to help; you were there to help last week by virtue of the tremendous support that you as an organization, and that you as individuals, have given to the United Way and SEFA campaigns over the years."

President William R. Greiner echoed McCarthy's remarks about UB's support to the United Way campaign, noting that the university leads Erie County and Western New York in terms of its contributions to the SEFA campaign. UB has the most leadership givers—161 last year—among all institutions in Western New York, is the largest employer-donor in terms of the total contributions of its employees, contributes 38 percent of the SUNY SEFA campaign, and represents 8 percent of the statewide SEFA campaign, Greiner said.

"That's what I call leadership from a leadership institution," he said.