Correspondent photo / Sean Barron From left, Amy Hendricks, who helps fund a United Way Care Closet; Bob Hannon, the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley’s president; and Stephanie Shapiro, a United Way board member, stand next to shelves of donated food at Austintown Fitch High School, the site of a press conference Wednesday during which Hannon announced the agency had raised more than $3.7 million during its 2023 campaign.

AUSTINTOWN — Despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a continuing population decline and inflation, the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley was able to break its annual campaign fundraising record last year by raising $3,742,311.

“I feel that the work we do is driving the campaign’s success,” Bob Hannon, United Way’s president, said during a news conference Wednesday at Austintown Fitch High School in which he announced the fundraising total.

The gathering was in one of United Way’s three Care Closets in the Austintown School District. The agency oversees 12 such closets — which are also set up in the Youngstown and Boardman school districts. They are resource pantries that house donated food, clothing, hygiene products, comforters, laundry detergent and other items to make the school day easier for students in need.

“The Care Closets have been visited more than 18,000 times during the first six months of this school year alone,” Hannon stated. “Our goal is to meet the child’s needs so they can have success in the classroom.”

Largely because of the health pandemic, the way in which thousands of donors have continued to generously provide gifts, support and monetary donations has changed, “but the Valley always steps up,” Hannon said, noting that all of the money stays in the Mahoning Valley.

The agency works closely with area school districts to seek additional partners and address the needs of Valley residents and their families, Hannon continued.

“I can truly say that we’re blessed to live in this Valley,” said Eric Carlson, who, along with his wife, Bethany, was the agency’s 2023 campaign co-chair. “Everybody talks about our little Mahoning Valley, but our Mahoning Valley is an amazing place.”

Eric Carlson is also a UW board member and president of “Joe” Dickey Electric Inc. in North Lima.

Bethany Carlson, an education consultant, said that UW has been a centerpiece of her career in education, which includes having served in the Struthers and Austintown school districts as well as superintendent of the South Range district. Specifically, she was part of UW’s Success by 6 and Success after 6 programs.

Those two initiatives offer pre-kindergarten readiness programs and wrap-around services. In addition, they prepared an estimated 735 students in 19 school districts to enter school in summer 2023, and distributed free books to about 7,200 children from birth to age 5, Hannon noted.

Also happy to be part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to dismantle barriers many area students and their families face daily were Bob and Amy Hendricks, who help fund the three Austintown Care Closets.

“I was taught very early that success is not what you have, but what you give back,” Bob Hendricks, chief executive officer of Dinesol Plastics Inc., said.

Austintown “has been very good to our family,” so that fueled his desire to contribute in that manner, Hendricks explained.

Also expressing gratitude for a strong and vibrant partnership with UW was Austintown schools Superintendent Timothy Kelty, who said the two entities continue to address and meet students’ basic needs and work to give them tools for success.

Also discussed was UW’s Centofanti Volunteer Resource Center, a 12,000-square-foot building expansion set to open in June on Market Street in Boardman. The extra space will allow a variety of UW-related programs to grow and enable the agency to engage additional volunteers.

Hannon noted that his agency has spent the last several years focusing on diversifying its funding sources. To that end, last year, UW brought in about $1.5 million in federal 21st Century and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief grants for its early education programs, he said.

“We are once again humbled and amazed by what the Mahoning Valley can do to help those most vulnerable,” Hannon added. “Every year, we know we have an incredible task ahead of us, to raise money for our United Way-led programs as well as our nonprofit partners, and our donors step up in big ways.”

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