United Way celebrates 60th anniversary in Orleans County

Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Jodi Gaines, president of the board of United Way of Orleans County, reads a plaque paying tribute to Van Hungerford, considered the founder of United Way of Orleans County. The plaque was presented to his son Roger, right. (Right) Nyla Gaylord, executive director of United Way of Orleans County, talks of the agency’s accomplishments during a “Friendraiser” event Thursday at Bent’s Opera House.

Agency started as ‘Community Chest’ and has expanded mission beyond fundraising

MEDINA – In the midst of its 2024 fundraising campaign, United Way of Orleans County celebrated a special occasion Thursday night at Bent’s Opera House, the 60th anniversary of its founding.

More than 100 invited guests attended the event, called a “Friendraising,” intended to inform the public of the work United Way of Orleans County is accomplishing and celebrate its founding by a Medina native and entrepreneur with a love of his community.

The free event at Bent’s Opera House featured hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine bar and a chance to meet the family of Van Hungerford, who first had the vision to start a Community Chest in Medina.

Local entrepreneur Roger Hungerford was 12 when his father felt there should be an agency in his home town to which people could donate to help those in need. Soon after forming the Community Chest it evolved into United Way of Western Orleans. Van and a group of his friends were involved in raising money for a number of years, including a golf tournament, which for many years was named in honor of Van.

Roger said his father believed in supporting his community and was active on the hospital board, serving a number of years as its chair. He was chair when the CEO was diagnosed with brain cancer and Van stepped in and ran the hospital for a year.

“He was my inspiration,” Roger said. “He always was a fundraiser and active in the community. I was working for him when he raised the money for the first nine at Shelridge Country Club. Twenty-five years later, he raised money for the back nine. I was always proud of him for that.”

“We all have the ability to give something,” Roger continued. “I’m fortunate to have had workplaces where we had the ability to hold campaigns for United Way. I’ve been blessed with great financial resources and teams of people, and I feel responsible to help our community.”

His brother Bill Hungerford credits his father and mother Betty for forming the Community Chest. He said local businesses were being bombarded with requests for donations from every civic organization in the area, and they felt there was a need for one central place where people could give.

Bill threw his support to United Way by serving 25 years on the board, as a member, and several terms as president.

Betty Hassall of Medina was director of Western Orleans United Way for many, many years, until she retired at the time of the merger.

The exact date United Way of Eastern Orleans was formed is not clearly known, but Jerome Pawlak, a current board member, said it was in the early 1960s. It is presumed to have formed after United Way of Western Orleans. Dorothy Ross was executive director for 30 years, he said.

It also originally started as the Community Chest, under the leadership of Dick Eddy, Ed Archbald, Skip Landauer, Curtis Lyman and a few others, according to Pawlak.

Hannah Castelli, left, and Rachael Betts, program officers at the Greater Rochester Health Foundation, enjoy appetizers and conversation at Thursday’s Friendraising event at Bent’s Opera House. The Foundation sponsored the event with a $5,000 grant.

Pawlak first served on the board in 1985, and since served in many capacities, including president, vice president and campaign chairman. His father Henry also served on the board and the campaign cabinet for several years. He is the only individual to serve as the champaign chair of both Western and Eastern Orleans County United Ways.

Eastern United Way affiliated with Greater Rochester United Way for several years, from the mid 1990s until 2011, while Western Orleans remained independent.

The two United Ways voted to merge into one United Way of Orleans County in 2011, and Eastern broke away from Greater Rochester at that time.

Dean Bellack of Medina became a United Way supporter when he joined the board in 2020, after retiring and selling his company. At his first board meeting, the director gave her resignation to accept another job, and Bellack offered his services until the search for a new director could be completed. He continued in the position for three years, and is credited with changing the entire structure of how United Way gets its funds.

The result was more than $2 million in grants, which funded a respite program, low-cost internet availability for the county, a nutrition program for Community Action/Cornell Cooperative Extension and upgrades to Bullard Park.

Henry Smith Jr. of Albion checks out an array of appetizers at the United Way’s Friendraising event at Bent’s Opera House.

Prior to that, Nyla Gaylord, who at the time was director of Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern, was asked to write a grant to secure a grant writer. She did that on her own time, and the results led to the hiring of Matt Holland as a grant writer free to any non-profit in Orleans County. Gaylord subsequently came to United Way as a fundraiser.

Holland left United Way in 2023 to accept a position with Orleans County Economic Development Agency, and Gaylord became executive director.

In late 2023, Aeddon Cayea of Medina, an Americorps student who had worked at Cornell Cooperative Extension all summer, was hired as assistant to Gaylord and grant writer.

The focus on writing grants became a necessity after Covid led to the shut down of of in-person workplaces and curtailed employment. Workplace campaigns, previously the biggest source of income, were deeply affected. Many workplaces have found their employees can work from home, resulting in a continued decline in workplace donations. While donations have declined, requests for help from the community have not.

Currently, United Way of Orleans County is striving to develop a diverse and active board from all corners of the county.

Under the leadership of director Nyla Gaylord, is Aeddon Cayea, grant writer; Dawn Winkler financial coordinator; and consultant Nick Coulter.

Jodi Gaines is board president; Mollie Radzinski, vice president; Jennifer Mateo, secretary; Tim Moriarity, treasurer; Jerome Pawlak; Ayesha Kruetz; Dean Bellack; Don Colquhoun; Jackie Gardner, Virginia Kropf, Karen Blank and Rosemarie Patronski.

Among the guests at the Friendraising, was Pam Shuner, president of the board of OCALS, who credits her agency’s survival to support from United Way.

For a number of years, an allocation from United Way of Western Orleans was the only community support they received.

“When OCALS stepped into family literacy in 2010-11, it was support of United Way that enabled us to help children and families,” Shuner said. “We continue to provide literacy to families today with United Way’s continued support.”

One of Shuner’s favorite memories is of the year they partnered with United Way on Day of Caring.

“Baxter Healthcare sent employees to read to the kids at the ABCD Childcare Center in Holley,” Shuner said. “They brought books for every child to take home, including bi-lingual ones for the bi-lingual children.”

Karen Kinter, CEO of Oak Orchard Health, called United Way of Orleans County, “A great organization.”

“Nyla has done a wonderful job connecting partners, including Oak Orchard Health,” Kinter said. “We look forward to all the opportunities in front of us by working together.”

Dave Cook of Lyndonville was a board member of United Way for almost 20 years, beginning with United Way of Western Orleans. He was on the committee which facilitated the merger between Western and Eastern United Ways.

“I enjoyed watching United Way grow from two separate entities,” Cook said.

United Way’s board president Jodi Gaines praised the organization’s 60-year existence and stressed that all donations stay in Orleans County to help local people.

She presented a plaque to Roger Hungerford, recognizing his support of United Way and his family’s contribution to the organization. She also thanked him for donating the venue for Thursday’s Friendraiser.

“I remember my dad telling stories about United Way,” Roger said.

He added his father Van designed the first pulmonary bypass pump at Sigmamotors, the predecessor of Roger’s company.

“He was a great dad and an interesting entrepreneur,” Roger said. “He inspired me.”

In her speech, director Nyla Gaylord alluded to the “sparks” who have ignited projects in the community.

Examples were the late George Lamont, founder of Oak Orchard Health Center; Van Hungerford and Henry Pawlak.

“They were ‘sparks’ in their community and in their family,” Gaylord said. “They passed on to their children a legacy of giving back to the community. Their children listened and learned.

“Dean was the ‘spark’ that saved the United Way in Orleans County,” Gaylord said of Bellack.

She said foundations reached out to the United Way, the one organization with connections to the whole community.

With the help of a consultant from the group of foundations in Buffalo, “hub calls” were initiated to create a forum to bring the community together to communicate and problem solve, Gaylord said. Those calls are ongoing today.

Unexpected help started coming from places such as foundations in Buffalo and Rochester, asking us what our community needed, Gaylord said. Some of those needs were digital literacy, a grant writer for the county, basketball courts at Bullard Park, a respite program for caregivers and in-home respite care.

“By collaborating, we are creating a respite program unlike any other that will likely serve as a model for other communities,” Gaylord said.  “For each of these major initiatives, the United Way of Orleans County was the lead agency supporting development of new programming in the county.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Nyla Gaylord joins Albion basketball players in celebrating the opening of new courts at Bullard park on Oct. 26. The United Way helped secure some of the grant funding for the project.

Susan Oschman, whose spark started the movement for basketball courts, has also said that she and the Greater Albion Events and Recreation team are planning a campaign to build pickle ball courts in Bullard Park for seniors.

In another effort, Orleans County finally received funding to create a wireless broadband network across the county and connected with United Way to conduct an outreach campaign to reach out to low-to-moderate income households in specific areas to connect to the new broadband service and save money by accessing government funded benefits.

United Way worked with Kevin Reagan from RTO Wireless for more than a year to develop the Connect Orleans website and customize marketing materials to help identify people interested in the wireless broadband service.

In February of last year, United Way hosted a series of housing conversations to address the housing shortage in Orleans County. Out of the housing conversations grew a subgroup of people and organizations concerned about the growing number of people in our community without homes.

They decided to focus on the most urgent, basic need – a warming center in the county to help the Department of Social Services fulfill their state mandated obligation to provide a shelter when the temperatures drop below freezing. Christ Episcopal Church agreed to let their facility be used for a warming center, but DSS can’t run it, stated Holli Nenni, commissioner of Social Services. They needed a partner.

Karen Kinter, CEO of Oak Orchard Health Center, came up with the idea that they can hire, train and supervise staff to implement the warming center at Christ Church. Emergency Management and the Health Department joined churches, volunteers and staff from Community Action, Independent Living and the Ministry of Concern. By November, the Code Blue Warming Center opened at Christ Church – a triumph of community collaboration.

This was but the start of a solution to the community’s housing shortage. This past fall, United Way secured funding from Heritage Wind and the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo to hire a housing consultant. Former legislator Ken DeRoller volunteered to work with him to develop a housing strategy for Orleans County.

“We expect to have a report to share with the community by the end of April,” Gaylord said. “All the people and organizations who have stepped up to create new programs and opportunities for our community are ‘sparks.’”

Gaylord continued to say we have entered a new era of community collaboration in which sparks from many places can come together to revitalize our county.

“The United Way has created a new paradigm for improving our community so that everyone can thrive,” Gaylord told the crowd at Bent’s. “In addition to our fundraising activities and corporate and individual donations, we have diversified our revenue streams by securing grants that bring new services and programs to our community. We now have a vehicle for legacy donations that will ensure the United Way in Orleans County continues in perpetuity.”

Gaylord left the audience with this thought:

“Together we can all contribute something – time, talent or treasure,” she said. “Not everybody can give everything. But everyone can give something.”

The United Way of Orleans County touches basically every segment of the population by providing funding to Camp Rainbow; Meals on Wheels; Boy Scouts of America; Care Net Center of Greater Orleans; Orleans Koinonia Kitchen; Community Action of Orleans and Genesee; GCASA; GO Art!; Hospice of Orleans; Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern; Medina Senior Center; OCALS; Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension; Orleans County YMCA; and P’raising Kids Child Care Center.

There are several ways to donate to United Way of Orleans County and they can be found on United Way’s website.

Thursday’s Friendraiser event was aided by a $5,000 grant from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation, whose program officers Hannah Castelli and Rachael Betts were among the attendees of the Friendraiser.