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It’s Time to Celebrate the 2023-24 Pledge Drive!

It’s Time to Celebrate the 2023-24 Pledge Drive!

Posted on April 3, 2023 Posted By: Jude Bias Categories: About Us, Board of Directors, Giving, News & Views, Pledge, Pledge 2023

Hands and Hearts of Our Community

  🎶 C E L E B R A T I O N ! 🎶  Sunday, April 16th!

Save the date! We will celebrate the successful conclusion of our pledge drive alongside a celebration of our congregation’s 80th anniversary and a dedication of the new church signage. This is a party you will not want to miss! Want to join the list of volunteers we are thankful for? We will have sign-up to help with this event available soon.

2023 Pledge Thank You From Co-chairs Hayley & Bob

There are over 30 of your fellow UUCvillers who comprise the 2023 Pledge Drive Team. They Believed In You. They Had Fun. They Worked Hard. They Made New Friends. They Believed In You. And, YOU didn’t let them down! Meet the team.

  • Stewardship Steering Committee – The SSC is a committee of rockstars who were commissioned by the Board in 2022 to champion our congregation’s stewardship ministry – helping to nurture a culture of giving and caring for our human, physical, and financial resources. They provide oversight for the pledge drive and assistance to the pledge drive co-chairs. We are so grateful to this team for their support.

(Kay Frazier, Don Landis, Sandy Brooks,  Jimmy Gorham, Rev. Tim)

  • Co-Chairs – Also known by their very cool acronym PDOT (Pledge Drive Operating Team), the co-chairs work to organize and coordinate the pledge drive, collaborating with the SSC and ministers to set the vision for the drive and then working with the many different teams to coordinate efforts. This year was the first year the Pledge Drive was structured with a team of two. Bob focused on managing the pledge information and askers teams, while Hayley worked on the pledge drive kick-off and communications team. Bob brought his sense of humor and good spirit and Hayley her enthusiasm!

(Bob Brett and Hayley Owens Co-Chairs)

  • Early Drive – The early drive team worked in the month of February reaching out to our most consistent donors to make sure the pledge drive was off to a strong start even before the kick-off event. This year, because of this team’s hard work and our generous donors we started off our pledge drive with $177K! (Ann Salamini, Rev. Tim)

(What fun was had by all at the Pledge Drive Kick-off Party)

  • Kickoff Event – What a treat it was to join fellow UUCville folks over delicious soups and cakes for this kick-off celebration! We have a big group of folks to thank for cooking, setting up tables and arrangements, serving, and cleaning up after! Throughout this special event bells were rung and hearts were placed on the sign to celebrate the pledges that people were submitting. (Organizers: Beth Jaeger-Landis, Lori Craddock, David Shutt, Elizabeth Breeden, Don Landis; Volunteers: John Nolen, Sandy Brooks, Burnie Davis, Steve Brecker, Nancy Hurrelbrink, Jude Bias, Pam McIntire, Kristen McCleary, Kay Frazier, Ann Salamini, Mary Beth Wiley)

(A few of the kick-off party worker bee team – Dave, Harry, Lorie,
and Elizabeth – trainees are always welcomed!)

(Nancy, Beth & Janine – are always at the ready)

  • Kickoff Letter Writers and Senders – This year the kick-off letter team sent individualized snail-mail to every member and friend of the congregation inviting them to pledge. It was a lot of work to organize this information! Rev. Tim wrote an inspiring call to pledge and people appreciated being able to quickly reference how much they pledged last year. (Kay Frazier, Jude Bias, Ann Salamini, Mary Beth Wiley with special help from Carole McIvor)

(Letter stuffers Mary Beth and Ann and what a joy it was!)

  • Communications Team – The talented communications team has worked all month to share the amazing ways that We Build! here at UUCville. This creative bunch of folks contributed their writing, editing, photoshop, and film-making skills to bring inspired content to your inbox, Facebook feed, YouTube, and even the social hall. (Achsah Carrier, Hayley Owens, Joanna Hickman, Jude Bias, Sandy Brooks, Angela Orebaugh)

(Think we were working a few folks on the communication team too hard!)

  • Pledge Tracker and Data Team – Our amazing pledge tracker, Cathey, works with the data team, led by Jimmy, to make sure that your pledge is accounted for and that the data we have is accurate. This team does a lot of work behind the scenes to track and analyze our progress while making sure that the pledge drive team has accurate information throughout the drive. Importantly, they keep our progress thermometers up to date! (Jimmy Gorham (Lead), Bob Brett, Kay Frazier, and Pledge Tracker – Cathey Polly)

(Jimmy, Bob, and Renee)

  • Askers Team – You may have received a text, email, or phone call from our friendly askers team! These kind folks mobilize after the kick-off to reach out to and follow up to make sure that everyone remembers to pledge. This time-consuming work is so important to a successful drive.
  • (Ann Salamini, Amy Nash, Steve Brecker, Linda Dukes, Renee Brett, Chris Little, Brett Gastinger)

(Our UUGuys – Don, Dave & Steve – do it all even dishing out soup at the pledge kick-off)

(Linda, Chris, Cathey, Breck, Amy, John, Pam and Kristen )

  • Thank Yous – One must imagine that this team gets hand-cramps from keeping up with this congregation’s generosity. Handwritten notes are regularly sent out to appreciate the love that is given by our pledgers. (Burnie Davis)

(Sending our love back to Burnie and hoping he can unfold his fingers now!)

  • A special thank you to our ministers Rev. Tim and Rev. Leia for steadfast leadership, wisdom, and inspiration throughout the drive, and without Sean, Carole, and Caroline we couldn’t have done it all.

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