MERCER COUNTY United Way donors are eligible for prizes

Give $52 to the United Way this year and get a shot at winning a new car or truck.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Jim Feeney thought it was difficult raising about $1 million for the United Way of Mercer County when he chaired its annual fall campaign 26 years ago.
"I think it's tougher now," he said, coming back to chair the 2002 fund drive that began in September.
The United Way is raising basically the same amount of money but has to find new ways to do it, said Feeney, retired senior vice president of operations for Wheatland Tube Co.
The big manufacturing plants that contributed about 60 percent of the campaign funds two decades ago are gone now, he said.
The Sharon Steel Corp. and Westinghouse Electric plants were well-organized, major contributors with both the company and unions actively involved, he recalled.
They basically did their own solicitations with only minimal help from the United Way, he said.
There is still a push to get local plants involved today but they are much smaller operations, and the money just isn't there to support the campaign. There is more of a focus now on appeals to foundations and individual contributors, he said.
The United Way has an "Honor Society" of 120 donors who give at least $1,000 to the annual campaign, said Jim Micsky, executive director.
The agency has come up with what Feeney calls "an innovative program for people to increase their giving to the United Way."
Incentives
The agency, with the generous support of some local businesses, is offering chances at some prizes to those who contribute or increase their annual giving to the campaign, he said.
First prize is the winner's choice of a new car or truck from one of eight local car dealers. Second prize is two airline tickets to anywhere in the continental 48 states from Plaza Travel and Continental Airlines, and third prize is a pair of rocker recliners from Goldstein's Furniture.
"It has been done in other Pennsylvania counties," Feeney said, noting that Berks and York County United Way drives have used this type of program successfully.
"It's hard to go back every year and ask for increased donations," he said, adding that the prizes are an incentive to get new contributors interested and old contributors to give more.
Micsky said the eight car dealers jumped at the chance to participate, agreeing to share the approximate $12,000 cost of a vehicle for the program.
The holder of the winning ticket can pick a vehicle from Ben Bissett Chevrolet, Bill McCandless Ford Mercury, Dodge City Inc., Hermitage Mitsubishi, Mel Grata Chevrolet-Toyota, Preston Ford Inc., Sharon Chrysler Plymouth Inc. or Shenango Honda-Nissan, he said.
Explanation
Here's how it works.
Anyone pledging a minimum of $52 to this year's campaign will be given one ticket.
Pledge a minimum of $1 more per week and get a second ticket. Increase the pledge by $2 a week and get a third ticket. Boosting the pledge by $3 a week will earn a fourth ticket.
No one can get more than four tickets and Micsky estimated that about 20,000 tickets will be handed out during the course of the campaign.
The giveaway is open to anyone who makes a $52 contribution to the campaign, either by pledge or at once, by dropping off a check or cash at the United Way office at 300 W. State St. You don't have to live in Mercer County to participate.
The drawing date is set for the end of the campaign at noon Dec. 18.
It's still early in the drive, but Micsky said the incentive appears to be drawing interest.
"Its' going to be a tough year," Feeney said, referring to the state of the economy, the situation with Iraq and a slowdown in local mills.
Yet the requirements of the Mercer County area agencies the United Way helps fund continue to grow and every effort must be made to meet that demand, he said.