By Tim Leeds
Hill County United Way may not meet its fund-raising goal of $110,000 this year, but with one contribution still to be tallied, director Bob Rice thinks it will end up quite a bit better than he expected.
"I think we're going to do OK," he said today. "I think we'll probably come in at about 90 percent of goal. I think we'll do as good as last year, anyway."
Rice, who is also Havre's mayor, asked the United Way Board to extend the Nov. 30 deadline for fund raising because some businesses had not completed their paperwork, and because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. So much effort and concern had gone into helping the victims of the attacks that it was difficult to meet the deadline for the local United Way, he said.
He said many people wanted to wait until after Christmas to set their contributions. Everything seemed to be running about two months behind normal after the attacks, Rice said.
Rice said the only contribution left to tally is the employee contributions from Montana State University-Northern. He expects that to come in today.
Rice said the total contributions are at a little more than $90,000 without counting Northern's contributions. The contributions were at $58,000 the last week of November.
All of the money collected stays in the county, going to 18 groups approved for Hill County United Way funding.
Those groups include the Salvation Army, the North Havre Community Food Bank, Golden Triangle Mental Health Center, Boys Scouts and Girls Scouts, and the Feed My Sheep soup kitchen.
Last year United Way of Hill County raised $100,032.
