This is a busy time of year around the Cape and Islands United Way offices, with event planning, fundraising, and some changes on our Board of Directors. Carrie Woods (Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch) is our new board chair, replacing Todd Machnik after two years of service in this role. Todd remains on the board as immediate past chair.
It has been truly eye opening to go on some of the site visits with our nonprofit partners. As part of our mission, we take a holistic approach to the issues we face as a community, figuring out who best to partner with to address problems such as food insecurity, caring for our aging population, and tackling the widening achievement gap in our schools that so profoundly affects those who struggle financially and socially. This month, Beth Bowman, our Director of Community Impact, and I visited several of our nonprofit partners, including The Family Pantry of Cape Cod on Queen Anne Road in Harwich.
I hope you will also check out the many exciting events we have scheduled for spring and summer. We are especially excited about our annual Best Night of the Year gala on June 28. We will be at a new venue, the Pelham House Resort on the ocean in Dennisport. On this 22nd annual Best Night we will honor Tony Shepley with the inaugural Visionary Award, given to a person in our community who doesn’t see things as they are – but how they could be – and sets out with his or her time, treasure or talent to make a difference. The event is sure to be a sell out.