I\nlove the month of February! February brings us the optimism and fun of\nGroundhog Day. I get to celebrate my birthday and bask in the many blessings of\nmy life. Valentine\u2019s Day provides moments to be thankful for those special\nsomeone\u2019s in our lives. And our university family at Fort Hays State University\ncomes together to generously invest in our community through the United Way\ncampus drive. This year, our goal is $30,000, and I know we can get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did\nyou know that there are nearly 1,800 local United Ways around the world,\nlocated in 40 countries and territories, fueled by the work of 2.6 million\nvolunteers working to improve lives? Collectively, the United Way raises $5\nbillion dollars every year \u2013 all through the big-heartedness of people and\ncompanies who care. Fantastic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nUnited Way was founded more than 125 years ago in Denver by a small group that\nincluded a woman, a priest, two ministers and a rabbi. Quoting from the\nwebsite, \u201cIt sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but they didn’t walk\ninto a bar; what they did do was recognize the need to work together\nin new ways to make Denver a better place.\u201d I always love a good story\nabout people who come together to make our communities better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nmission of the United Way is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of\ncommunities around the world to advance the common good. The reason I look\nforward to partnering with the United Way is that its mission is so congruent\nwith our mission. We strive to develop engaged global citizen-leaders. The work\nof the United Way also aligns with our institutional commitment to unlocking\nhuman potential. And the work of the United Way and its legion of volunteers\nserves the democratic, economic and social needs of our communities. The\ncreation and application of new knowledge leads to social and economic\nadvancements, innovation that solves problems, and global engagement that calls\nus to build partnerships that connects our students to the world. To me, the\nannual February campus drive is our opportunity to demonstrate locally how we\nwalk our talk \u2013 with heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nUnited Way of Ellis County supports 23 programs provided by 18 agencies in\nEllis County: American Red Cross, Big\nBrothers Big Sisters, Cancer Council, Catholic Charities, Center for Life\nExperiences, Cerebral Research Foundation, City of Ellis, Court Appointed\nSpecial Advocates, Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas, Early Childhood\nConnections, First Call for Help, Hays Area Children\u2019s Center, Hays Senior\nCenter, KVC Wheatland Hospital, Options, Parents and Children Together, Western\nKansas Association on the Concerns of the Disabled, and Western Kansas Child\nAdvocacy Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As\nI review this list, my mind is flooded with thoughts of how our university\nsupplements the campus drive throughout the year. For example, the Alpha Kappa\nPsi business fraternity has a long-standing tradition of organizing a campus\nblood drive for the Red Cross. Many of our student organizations have adopted philanthropies\nand even have a student organization called Tigers for Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our\nstudents in Leadership 310 classes work together each spring to support\ncommunity organizations in responding to community needs. Past endeavors\ninclude gathering supplies and donations for child victims of sexual abuse,\nfilling a disaster response trailer to aid victims of natural disasters,\norganizing campaigns for Options to support survivors of domestic and sexual\nabuse, and working with Breathe Coffee House to create a support system for\npeople with mental health issues . Another project focused on reducing stress\nand conflict between landlords and tenants by informing tenants of their rights\nand responsibilities. Yet another featured our students uniting dancers and the\nDevelopmental Services of Northwest Kansas (DSNWK) individuals to produce a\nshow that inspired the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nDancing Together for DSNWK event is a powerful memory for me. I will never\nforget watching Natalie McCullough dance. Natalie is the daughter of Jason\nMcCullough, the Tigers\u2019 head cross country and track coach, and Karen\nMcCullough, FHSU director of Career Services. \nIt was a remarkable moment, given Natalie\u2019s disabilities, and I still\nsmile and tear up every time I recall that emotional memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nlist of how our faculty, staff, and students make our community better is\nendless. I am so proud of the generosity of this community and how we put our\nmission, vision and values into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of\ncourse, as we approached the start of our campus United Way campaign, we had to\nget imaginative \u2013 while doing the pandemic dance of social distancing, wearing\nmasks, etc.\u2013 as we worked to create engaging opportunities to inform folks\nabout the important mission of the United Way and the many ways they can to contribute\nto the campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, what will our campus and community have to look forward to as we celebrate the United Way? For starters, we decided to host two Food Truck Fridays with Smokin Co. BBQ. The local BBQ business on wheels was on campus last Friday and will return again on Feb. 19. Special thanks to our United Way campus campaign coordinator, Janette Meis. I believe in the power of philanthropy to bring people together in support of the greater good, so I plan to share more information about the United Way campaign in my next column. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love the month of February! February brings us the optimism and fun of Groundhog Day. I get to celebrate my birthday and bask in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58456,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58455\/revisions\/58456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}