Christians United
In The News
Special
delivery from UPS
From The Sanford Herald, December 3, 2010, by BILLY BALL
SOUTHERN PINES — UPS made a
special delivery to one local nonprofit Friday.
The parcel company presented a $20,000 check to Lee County's Christians United
Outreach Center (CUOC), a local food pantry that has weathered heating and
cooling issues for months at its Lee Avenue thrift store.
Nonprofit heads will use the cash to purchase a new heating and air system in
the thrift store, just in time for the chilly weather in Lee County.
The agency was facing sweltering heat when officials pleaded unsuccessfully
with the Sanford City Council for emergency funds in July, and the UPS announcement
comes as temperatures are expected to dip below the freezing mark this weekend.
“All of you know how brutal the summer was,” said UPS worker and CUOC volunteer
Nancy Whalen. “It was not very pleasant in there.”
The City Council rebuffed the nonprofit's calls for help this summer, with
members complaining the charity giveaway was setting a bad precedent. If the
funding was approved, battered local agencies could line up in droves to stump
for taxpayer dollars, council members said.
The rejection came despite council member's moves to include at least $46,000
in the current fiscal year budget for nonprofits like the cash-strapped Boys
and Girls Clubs, as well as other area agencies like Sanford's Temple Theatre
and the Lee County Arts Council.
Whalen said UPS stepped up through its charitable arm, the UPS Foundation, to
funnel money to the ailing nonprofit following the council decision.
A check was presented to Dew at a UPS hub in Southern Pines Friday morning.
CUOC controls the largest food pantry in Lee County, nonprofit Executive
Director Teresa Dew said Friday, supplying more than 860 local families a month
with food supplies.
“With the economy out there, it's just a great need,” Dew said.
Agency members have complained that the failed heating and cooling unit in the
thrift store made work treacherous at times for volunteers staffing the
facility.
CUOC uses money from the thrift store to bankroll its operations, and Dew once
said cash might have been diverted from purchasing food to repairing the store
unit if a benefactor didn't open up the pocketbook.
“We don't know what we'd do without you,” Dew told UPS officials Friday.
U.S. Congresswoman-elect Renee Ellmers and N.C. House of
Representatives-elect Mike Stone were on hand for the presentation Friday.
Stone, currently a member of the Sanford City Council, was one of the members
who nixed CUOC's calls for help in July.
At the time of the council decision, Stone said CUOC officials should pursue
individual or corporate donations rather than taxpayer-funded breaks.
Small Business Expo
Nets 880 Pounds of Food
A special
thanks to Central Electric Membership Corp. and the Sanford Chamber of Commerce
for a wonderful Small Business Expo on May 12. For the price of admission
you could choose to pay cash or 3 cans of food.
A total of 880 lbs of food
from 787 items were collected during this event and donated to the CUOCLC!!
Central Electric employee volunteers transported and unloaded the food at CUOC.
Thank you to our community for the great work you do to help the hungry in Lee
County!
2010 Postal Food
Drive Tops Last Year’s Donations
Thanks to the all the hard
work by the National Association of Letter Carriers with a very successful
Postal Food Drive held May 8. With more than 75 volunteers helping during
the day, we were able to receive and sort just under 15,000 lbs of food from
their collections in Lee County.
What a blessing everyone was
who stayed and helped until 7:00pm that evening! Special thanks to Grace
Aiken for coordinating the CUOCLC Team and to Coleen Mundy for the Postal Union
Team. Many Lee County residents will benefit from these efforts. If you
see any of these people, tell them thank you for going above and beyond to make
this happen!
Last year’s number was just
over 13,000lbs. What a great increase during a rough economy.
UPS
Delivers Aid to Area Ministry
From
Summer ’09 Neighbors Helping Neighbors,
newsletter of the
The next time you run across UPS’ corporate
catchphrase, “Brown Delivers,” it may take on an entirely new meaning. Nearly a
dozen UPS industrial engineers from
“It was a great experience to get out and help the
community,” says UPS manager Steve Chesnee. “It was also quite eye-opening to
see how great the needs are, and I am pleased that we could pitch in to help.”
PHOTO: UPS engineer Alfred Strickland helps stock
the thrift store.