Provo City's Annual Charity Campaign

by Karen Tapahe

I am new to the Council office so this is my first experience with Provo City's annual charity campaign. Each employee has an opportunity to contribute to local charities through one-time donations or by donating from each paycheck during the year. My previous work with the Utah-Southern Idaho Chapter of the National MS Society and with Heritage Schools, Inc. showed me how much can be done when everyone chips in.

Another part of the campaign takes advantage of our competitive nature by awarding a trophy to the department which brings in the most contributions to the food bank. The winner is determined by calculating pounds of food per full time employee so small departments can compete with the bigger ones.

The Council office is the current home of the "Golden Can Award," earned last year by rounding up 287 pounds per employee. We are now working hard to defend our trophy and see if we can surpass last year's total.

To make things really interesting, our staff here in the Council office have challenged Council Members to see which group can bring in more donations. The losing "team" will have to do an outdoor service project so they can experience the "chill" of defeat and have another opportunity to give. It's all in fun, of course, and we are grateful to be able to help out our neighbors in need.

You are welcome to get involved and help this wonderful effort. Community Action even has a list of the most needed items on their website. Monetary donations are actually the most helpful as a donation of even $1 can provide 5 meals. If you don't already have food on hand to donate, please consider contributing cash. There is a way to do this online or you can bring it in to our office and add it to what we are donating.

Whether you donate a dollar or a can of food, every little bit helps! Let's show how much Provo cares by doing what we can. Our food drive ends December 9, 2014.

When bringing donations to our office, let us know if you want it to count for the Staff or the Council Members. I recommend supporting the staff, of course.

City Council Office

351 W Center St., 3rd Floor

Call me at 801-852-6122 if you have questions