United Way hosts 81st Annual Meeting.Howard L. Carver is 2005 Community Service Award recipient.
2005 United Way Community Campaign announces record results.
2005 Non-profit Pulse Survey

2005 Campaign Goal set at $26.6 million

2004 Community Service Award presentation

Boys & Girls Club and UCONN Football Standout

United Way of the Capital Area hosted its 81st annual meeting on Tuesday, March 21 and the organization’s highest volunteer recognition was presented to Howard L. Carver of Avon. Special recognition also was given to retired labor leaders Helene Shay and Judy Warfield for their combined 29 years of volunteer service to United Way.

The meeting was held from 5 to 7 p.m. at The Hartford Tower Suite in Hartford. Throughout the meeting, United Way of the Capital Area celebrated 81 years of changing lives and improving community conditions in the 40-town Capital Area.

2005 Community Service Award recipient Howard L. Carver
The 2005 Community Service Award was presented to Howard L. Carver who moved to the Hartford area in 1999 and has been a tireless volunteer for United Way since then. The Community Service Award is United Way of the Capital Area’s highest honor bestowed on a volunteer and has been presented annually for fifty-five years.

Carver’s favorite saying is “we’re all in this together,” which explains his commitment to sharing his time and talents to make our community a better place for all. After a 35-year career with Ernst and Young, he now is retired. He and his wife Sue split their time between Avon and Silverthorne, Colorado.

Carver has an impressive volunteer history. He has held many positions on the United Way board of directors, serving most recently as board treasurer and having served on the executive, finance, audit, investment and nominating committees as well. Since 2000, Carver has been an invaluable member of the United Way Community Campaign Cabinet. He chaired the professional division for two years and currently serves as co-chair of the Tocqueville Society, a post he has held for four years. Tocqueville Society members contribute $10,000 or more to United Way each year. Under Carver’s chairmanship, membership in the Tocqueville Society has grown from 213 members to 245 members. Giving to the Tocqueville Society tops $4 million and represents 15 percent of the overall Community Campaign.

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2005 United Way Community Campaign announces record results.
Local companies dig deep and raise the most money in campaign history.

$27,175,017. That’s the amount raised by the 2005 United Way Community Campaign announced campaign chairman Jim Sicilian at the campaign victory event held Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at the Pratt & Whitney hangar in East Hartford. Sicilian,   partner and chair, executive committee, Day Berry & Howard LLP, also announced that the campaign result is the most ever raised in the 81-year history of the organization and it exceeds this year’s goal of $26.6 million by nearly $600,000. The goal was announced in September.

The community campaign is the largest annual fund-rising effort in the state and the second largest in New England. This year’s amount breaks the former record of $27,002,985 set in 2002.

Nearly 600 corporate and community leaders were on hand at a noontime event held at Pratt & Whitney’s hangar in East Hartford as Sicilian announced the results.

“When I announced $26.6 million as the goal in September, I said it was just a base. This is a very generous community and I hoped the community could and would go higher.” said Sicilian. “But it was a difficult campaign. Donors were faced with the needs of those affected by devastating natural disasters in this country and throughout the world. However, the wonderful team of campaign volunteers from local companies, municipalities and agencies did not let donors forget the needs here in our community as well. And we have an extraordinary result!”

Nearly 1,000 organizations representing more than 200,000 employees held fund-raising campaigns for three months to raise funds to help those in need in the 40-town Capital Area. In addition to Sicilian, the campaign was guided by a volunteer campaign cabinet of local corporate leaders from companies such as United Technologies Corporation, ING, Northeast Utilities System, TD Banknorth, and Hartford Hospital.
Additionally, seventeen executives representing companies such as Carrier Corporation, Pratt & Whitney, the Phoenix Companies, MassMutual, UPS, and Hartford Hospital among others, were on “loan” to work full-time on the campaign.

“Eleven major companies (Aetna, Bank of America, Hartford Steam Boiler, St. Paul Travelers, The Phoenix Companies, The Hartford, ING, The Hartford Courant, MassMutual, CIGNA, Northeast Utilities System)  plus the United Technologies family of companies contributed two out of every three dollars raised this year, with the UTC companies the largest contributor overall,” said Sicilian. “We are truly appreciative of the generous support they collectively provide in so many ways to our community.”

Through the United Way Community Campaign, donors’ gifts are invested in health and human services programs that change lives and improve community conditions in the 40-town Capital Area. In 2004, more than 26.5 million was raised through the Campaign.

$26.6 million is the 2005 United Way Community Campaign goal announced by campaign chairman Jim Sicilian on Friday, September 9.

The suspense was elevated as 2005 United Way Community Campaign chairman Jim Sicilian took to the air on Friday, September 9 and revealed that the 2005 United Way Community Campaign goal is $26.6 million. As Let’s get it started played, Sicilian, partner and chairman of the executive committee at Day, Berry and Howard, LLP, ascended United Way’s three-story building in a Northeast Utilities System “cherry picker” bucket to reveal the campaign goal. He stood high above the audience as he told them that he considers this goal as a base only.

“I know that as a community we can and will go higher,” Sicilian said. “This community’s spirit of caring and giving is too strong to allow needs to go unaddressed.”

Sicilian spoke to a crowd of more than 150 campaign volunteers, agency representatives and community leaders. “We have all been focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and asking ‘what can I do to help?’ We can take some comfort in the fact that our past support of the United Way Community Campaign allowed organizations like the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Foodshare, 2-1-1 INFOLINE and others to be ready to respond,” he said. “While needs are great in times of disaster — in truth there are many in need 365 days a year. We cannot forget those needs here in Greater Hartford if we are to continue to make progress toward ensuring success for children, creating strong and health families and a thriving community.”

The morning also kicked off the fourteenth annual Day of Caring. Nearly 4,000 employees representing 89 local companies were scheduled to lend a hand at more than 340 project sites for 155 nonprofit agencies throughout the 40-town capital region. Activities include sorting food for hurricane victims, landscaping and clean-up at a farm education center; painting and cleaning shelters, reading with children; serving meals and doing activities with senior citizens.

The United Way Community Campaign is an opportunity for individuals to support programs and services that change lives and improve conditions in north central

Connecticut . In 2004, the Community Campaign raised more than $26.5 million.

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Courage Award winner Jonathan Trieber

Jonathan Treiber, a twenty-one-year-old leukemia and lung transplant survivor, received the United Way Community Campaign’s 12^th annual Courage Award on Friday, June 10, 2005. The award is presented annually to an individual who has triumphed over adversity with the assistance of an agency funded through the United Way Community Campaign. Treiber’s personal fortitude and support from his family gave him the courage to survive several life-threatening medical conditions. At the young age of five, he was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and required a bone marrow transplant. He suffered a relapse at age eight and required aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments. At seventeen, his noticeably rapid breathing and a case of pneumonia called for a lung biopsy which revealed a rapid loss of lung capacity. He was given an estimated 18-month survival period and was immediately placed on a lung transplant list. Treiber’s response to his shortened life expectancy was to simply say, “unacceptable.”  Treiber admits that during the wait there were times he was worried, but he concealed those feelings from his family. “I tried not to concentrate on my illness or treatments. I kept my life as normal as possible. I attended classes at Quinnipiac College, spent time with my family and just experienced ordinary, everyday living,” says Treiber.

         After waiting two years, he received the lung transplant in April of 2003. Today, at 21, he remains positive and determined to be just a normal guy. “This may sound amusing to some people but what I want most is to have a steady job. That was not feasible until now because of scheduled treatments and doctor appointments. I want to be a normal 21-year old, go out on weekends and cruise in my car.”

         The Treiber family received support, education and financial assistance from the Connecticut Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, an agency that receives funds through the United Way Community Campaign. Treiber and his family give back by volunteering for the society’s speaker bureau and they have testified before Congress.

The young man frequently offers words of encouragement to other cancer victims and is always surprised by remarks regarding his bravery.

          “I never see myself that way,” says Treiber, “I have to live and move on. I tell others to look at the bigger picture. This is just one chapter of your life when you have so much living ahead of you.”

          The Courage Award was presented to the Cheshire resident during the United Way Community Campaign’s training conference for local campaign volunteers, Jumpstart 2005. The event was held at Capital Community College in Hartford. James Sicilian, chairman of the 2005 United Way Community Campaign presented the award. Sicilian is partner and chair of the Executive Committee at Day, Berry & Howard, LLP.

         The United Way Community Campaign Courage Award was created in 1994. Five judges selected this year’s recipient: Jeffrey M. Blumenthal of The Hartford Financial Services Group and a member of the board of Community Health Charities; Marlene Ibsen of St. Paul Travelers; James Parent of Machinists Union District #26; David Polk of  Hartford Hospital; and Helen Ubinas, Hartford Courant columnist.

         The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Connecticut Chapter was founded in 1971 to improve the quality of life for patients and their families who have been touched by one of the blood-related cancers: leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. The chapter serves the counties of Hartford, Tolland, Windham, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, and New London.  

Courage Award recipients and the agencies from which they received assistance

1994    Harrison McKinstry                  Greater Hartford Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center

1995    Margaret Khoury                      Connecticut Visiting Nurse Association – East Hartford

1996    Janet Norton                            American Red Cross – Middlesex Central Connecticut Chapter

1997    Randy Moody                          Connecticut Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse

1998    Joe Roberto                             American Red Cross – Charter Oak Chapter

1999    Christopher Montes                  Lyme Disease Foundation

2000    Patty Haynie                           North Central Counseling Services

2001    Addie D’Agui                           Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford

2002    Philip Lual Ajok and                
Abraham Deng                        Catholic Charities, Inc.

2003    Jose Gonzalez                         Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford, Inc.

2004    Heather Major                          Interval House

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Community Service Award recipient James C. Smith

After James Smith graduated from Dartmouth College in 1971, he worked as a financial consultant for a brokerage firm in New York City for several years before joining First Federal in 1975. Smith was elected president in 1982 and named chief executive officer of the bank and its holding company, Webster Financial Corp., upon his father’s retirement in 1987.  He succeeded his father as chairman in 1995, and the bank was renamed for Harold Webster Smith later that year.

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Giving back. It’s not a cliché to University of Connecticut football standout Chris Bellamy.

University of Connecticut senior and football standout. Bellamy described how the Boys & Girls Club of New Britain, a United Way partner agency, changed his life.

On a cold January afternoon, 22-year-old Bellamy is taking a break from training for the NFL draft to “give back” at the New Britain Boys & Girls Club, the place that he says turned his life around. Shortly after the family moved to New Britain when Bellamy was in fourth grade his mother, Gwen, enrolled him in the Boys & Girls Club’s after-school program.

 “When I first went to the Boys & Girls Club, I didn’t like it and eventually I stopped going. I started hanging with a different group of kids, the wrong group. I made some poor choices, but later knew I had to make some changes. When I was in seventh grade, I decided to give the Club another try and this time I stayed.” In fact, he stayed until closing nearly every night to participate in Club programs, especially sports. Through sports he formed a particularly strong bond with the Club’s basketball coach, Marco Villa.  “Outside of my parents, the biggest influence in my life has been coach Villa. He saw potential in me — potential I never knew I had.”

Coach Villa saw Bellamy’s athletic ability and advised him to explore other sports, particularly high school football. “In the summer of ninth grade, I had my mind set on basketball and was not really crazy about football. Coach Villa told me not to close any doors and to always keep my options open. Still, I avoided football practice and coach noticed. He repeatedly asked me why I wasn’t attending practice and I got tired of telling him the same excuses, so one day I just said ‘I don’t have any cleats.’ Well, coach went home, got a pair of his old cleats, gave them to me and said, ‘now, you don’t have any excuses.’ The cleats were a perfect fit so he was right, I didn’t have any excuse. I went to practice and it changed my life.”

Those cleats and that practice were the beginning of a New Britain High School sports career full of  achievements. Bellamy was a two-year football starter, a three-year basketball starter and captain of both teams in his senior year. He won All-Conference honors, honorable mention All-State and team MVP in football and All-conference in basketball.  In his senior year, Bellamy was the New Britain Boys & Girls Club “Youth of the Year” and went on to win the statewide “Youth of the Year” award. He was the first statewide award winner from New Britain since Coach Villa won in 1994.

Bellamy says he never thought college was a big deal until he began attending the Boys & Girls Club regularly. But his accomplishments in sports changed his thinking. “Coach Villa told me to use sports as my car to drive me where I want to go.” The first place sports took him was to the University of Connecticut. A UConn scout first saw him at a Boston College football camp when he was a junior. Chris admits that he had to work hard to get his GPA and SAT scores up to qualify for college. “When I qualified, it was a huge weight off my shoulders. I had a box of letters from colleges across the country all saying they wanted me to attend, but only UConn believed in me to the very end. They saved me a full scholarship.”  In his UConn football career he was a versatile player who played wide receiver, tailback and on special teams. He lettered four years, appeared in 40 games with six starts, and had 224 career carries for 1120 yards with nine touchdowns while making 46 catches for 350 yards with a pair of scores. Throughout his football career Bellamy boasts that his dad, Bobby, is his biggest fan. Even at away games surrounded by opposing team supporters, Bobby chanted the UConn cheer. “Even if people didn’t know me, they knew me through my Dad.”

 Bellamy is working to be well-known in his own right. While in NFL training, he’s also finishing his sociology degree with an independent study project at the New Britain Boys & Girls Club. “I want to give back — take care of the Club as it took care of me. There is no way I can ever repay them for what they did for me, but if sharing my story with other children helps, I’ll do it.” So on this January day, Bellamy is talking and playing with children in the after-school program at the New Britain Boys & Girls Club. In both actions and words his message to them is, “Never lose sight of your goals, stay focused, keep a level head and, most of a