No'mo blues!

Last night, through educational words mixed with a killer Hurricane and some rockin' soul and southern country food a new group of people learned about United Way of Allen County.

The Dan Smyth Duo performed soul and blues throughout the night as nearly everyone went home with a special commemorative t-shirt. Many people pledged to support United Way with a simple $3.00 per week gift which even qualifies them for the Caring Club - a discount program on a local and national level.

United Way means many things to many people. Perhaps it is the events like Day of Caring that stand out in one's mind. Perhaps it is a thermometer measuring the amount of dollars raised. Perhaps it is the many social service agencies which gain programming support to do good work in our community. It is interesting, though, how many people do not know this much about United Way.

Growing up Carbo, I did not become exposed to United Way during my formative years. I was very fortunate, we did not need to tap assistance. My post college years, I worked for smaller companies and there was not a full-court press on giving money out of my paycheck to United Way. During the married years, well, lets skip that decade, however it was not until I worked on Mastodon's on Parade did I get the nugget of knowledge of not only how you can take from United Way to become more self sustaining, but how you can give to make others that way - the United Way!

So, yesterday that only comes every 4 years, we celebrated, partied and toasted to great things as United Way got rid of the blues at the Carbo Retreat, nestled still in the Haunted Hamlets.