Despite the scorching temperature on Wednesday afternoon, the United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin unveiled its 2018 fundraising goal by shooting basketballs into a net attached to a skyjack raised about 10 metres in the air.
The idea was to make the reveal once someone made a basket and after several attempts behind Linamar’s facility on Woodlawn Road, the goal was finally revealed to be $3.6 million.
It slightly surpasses the $3.5 million raised last year.
“We’re pretty excited,” said Ken Dardano, United Way executive director. “The community is rallying, we’re hearing a lot of good things from a number of our workplace campaigns.”
The campaign will run until Dec. 14.
Over $740 was raised on Wednesday alone in a basketball shootout that saw the likes of Mayor Cam Guthrie, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, and members of the Guelph Nighthawks and Guelph Gryphons shoot hoops for cash.
Dardano said every dollar counts for the 76 programs the United Way funds through 53 organizations in the area.
Get daily National news
“We know that one in three people in their lifetime will access one of the funded United Way services,” he said. “Every dollar stays local — we tell that to everybody — 100 per cent stays local.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.