30 Days of Giving 2015: Oswego’s Positive Community Impact Through SEFA

Awareness-raising events for SUNY Oswego‘s annual State Employees Federated Appeal are in full throttle this year to push the 2015-16 campaign — themed “Positive Community Impact” — along the path to its $35,000 goal for charitable organizations around the community and the globe.

Along with payroll deduction and direct employee contributions — online pledges are new this year — Baskets of Caring, annually raising at least $4,000 for SEFA/United Way, attracted lots of attention Nov. 18 and 19 on Marano Campus Center concourse. Donors voted each day in the spirited competition for the most creative goodies-filled basket.

Another indication the campaign is moving into a higher gear: The men’s and women’s ice hockey teams will host United Way food drives in connection with upcoming games, and Skate with the Lakers on Dec. 6 will invite the campus and community to contribute as they join members of the teams on the ice from 1 to 2 or 3 to 4 p.m.

While praising the dozens of volunteers organizing fundraising events across campus, Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley and members of the SEFA Committee emphasized that the college continues to advocate for greater overall participation among its employees. The campaign’s appeal for contributions through payroll deduction — the only such charitable request that can be made of employees in New York state — is under way.

“By increasing the number of participants from every part of campus, we will share the responsibility and pride of working as a community and for the communities we strive to support — whether you wish your donation to stay locally in Oswego County or to be sent to a charity elsewhere across our state, nation and world,” Stanley wrote in a campuswide message. “Every donation, including $1 and $2 per pay period, helps tremendously.”

Both the president and Kristin Gublo of the chemistry department, acting convener of the SEFA Committee, emphasized the impact SEFA/United Way contributions make on people’s lives — givers as well as recipients.

I just think that making a positive impact in your community is so important,” said Gublo, a longtime SEFA volunteer and leader of several of its annual fundraising events.

Online pledges

For the first time, faculty and staff can complete the SEFA pledge form electronically. Any employee can continue to use a handwritten form in the campaign’s packet.

Whether online or on paper, a completed form enters each donor in prize drawings that began Monday and continue through the end of December.

Gublo said that while the online form is designed for ease of use, volunteers stand ready to assist.

Gublo said the campaign is about one-third of its way to the goal. The need — from the United Way and its beneficiary organizations to any of the 2,400 other not-for-profit organizations listed in the SEFA booklet — is great, she said. President Stanley reinforced that.

“Your participation can make an enormous difference to the programs, families and individuals served by SEFA/United Way,” Stanley wrote. “So many children and their families remain challenged because of the continuously difficult economic climate.”

For more information, including a calendar of remaining SEFA/United Way events, visit oswego.edu/sefa.