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United Way Capital Area Announces Wildfire Relief Fund Recipients

Yesterday, UWCA awarded $118,000 from its Central Texas Wildfire Relief Fund to three organizations that continue to support and rebuild devastated communities after last fall’s massive wildfires. In all, the UWCA Wildfire Relief Fund raised $122,000, of which $4,000 was used in October 2011 to provide Wells Fargo and H-E-B gift cards to help people displaced get what they needed to get back to work, feed their families and buy clothing.

“At United Way Capital Area we unite philanthropists at all levels to ensure our community continues to thrive,” said Debbie Bresette, President of UWCA. “When the wildfires devastated Central Texas last fall, we brought together our resources and networks to increase our collective impact in providing for both immediate needs and long-term recovery efforts. Today’s announcement is just another strategic investment by United Way Capital Area in the future of our community.”

Funds were distributed to the following organizations:

  • Adopt A Family was awarded a $75,000 grant for its “Volunteer Action Network” program. The grant is specifically meant to provide recruitment and assignment for volunteers to help with disaster clean up and adopting families.
  • Society of St. Vincent de Paul-South Central Region was awarded $20,000 to go toward the recruitment and training of volunteers to provide Bastrop families affected by the wildfires with case management services.
  • Spicewood Long-Term Recovery Committee, which received $23,000, will the money will go toward rebuilding 16 new homes for families that lost their own residences in the fires.

The funds raised for the Central Texas Wildfire Relief Fund came from a variety of sources, including individual contributions, text-to-give donations, workplace giving and support from businesses like Bank of America and Samsung Austin Semiconductor, who were among the top donors.

“At Bank of America, our philanthropic mission is to give grants and donations to organizations that understand their community’s needs and address these needs in a way that provides long-term positive change,” said Nikki Salzillo, Corporate Social Responsibility Market Manager at Bank of America. “For this reason, we provided funding to United Way Capital Area’s Wildfire Relief Fund, knowing that the organization would distribute the funds in a way that would reflect our mission of supporting their long-term needs.”

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