The dissolution of the Weyburn and District United Way isn’t expected to have a major impact for the United Way Estevan.
The Weyburn organization voted to dissolve their assets and issue final allocation cheques in a special members meeting Dec. 12. They are still planning events like the annual Communithon through volunteers and the organization will still have a presence in the Weyburn area.
“Obviously we’re incredibly sad to hear that our friends in Weyburn have dissolved and we wish them all the best as they work through that process,” said Travis Frank, presidient of the United Way Estevan. “In terms of how this affects United Way Estevan, it really shouldn’t.”
Frank said United Way Estevan will continue to find the success they always have and keep working for their member agencies.
“Typically the way United Way Canada does it, they won’t likely increase our territory or anything like that unless we choose to,” Frank said. “However, people may choose to be able to donate to United Way Estevan and designate it to other areas… like Toronto or anything like that.”
‘They could donate to Weyburn and Estevan would still be able to facilitate that, Frank added. “Overall, it won’t affect us greatly and we can only wish the community of Weyburn all the best. Hopefully they’ll be able to create a new United Way someday soon and continue to raise money for their community.”
Frank said United Way Estevan is vigilant in making sure that what is donated in Estevan stays in the area, but it’s entirely possible the board may consider expanding to the Weyburn area.
“I think typically what United Ways have found success in is they kind of keep a small local region to make sure donors know their money is staying here,” Frank said. “That’s probably the way we would go, but that’s up for the (Estevan) board to decide.”
What happened to the Weyburn United Way doesn’t seem to be likely to come here. Over the last number of years, their Communithon telethon has become a smaller scale event and stopped being a full two-day event.
“They’ve also failed to meet their objectives over the last couple of years, which I know can be very tough in the United Way,” said Frank. “When you don’t meet your goals, you then have to go out and cut how much funding you’re able to give to your member agencies, which is not what you want to do.”
The Estevan telethon continues to be a strong asset in the community, Frank said, and he doesn’t see dissolution coming into play in Estevan at all.
“In Estevan, we haven’t had that trouble at all. We’ve been able to grow and increase our objectives every year and always succeed at hitting them,” he said.
