MURRAY — With some help from a regional agency whose main purpose is finding ways to make sure citizens in its area are in the best position to receive help, the United Way of Murray-Calloway County is about to put more than $40,000 to use in its community.
Paul McCreary, who is the vice president of the Murray-Calloway County affiliate’s board of directors said Thursday that the money is coming in two phases. The first is as part of the Worldwide United Way’s emergency food and shelter program that is commonly known as Phase 37. The second is a result of the CARES Act that Congress passed in April to bring relief to millions of Americans affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And it all was made possible thanks to the Purchase Area Development District office in Mayfield.
“We got some information from the group Feeding America who named four counties in our region that were eligible to receive emergency food and shelter funds,” said Bjarne Hansen, who is community development/public administration services specialist for PADD, as well as a Murray resident.
“Our philosophy, though, is that if there’s money available (for any entity in PADD’s coverage area), we’re going to try to go for it and that’s what we did here.”
Hansen said he learned about these funds’ existence about a week ago. He said he immediately began telephone notifications of officials in the four counties — Calloway, Graves, Marshall and McCracken — and said they were excited to have this opportunity come their way.
In Murray, it was McCreary with whom Hansen communicated.
“He’s a good guy. He may become my best friend eventually,” McCreary said of Hansen, who has experience with working with these types of opportunities. It was Hansen, who in 2011, orchestrated a livability grant while he was executive director of the Murray Calloway Transit Authority, that resulted in more than $1 million for the construction of a large number of sidewalks.
McCreary also said it was easy for the Murray-Calloway affiliate to become involved, being that one of the programs — the one addressing emergency food and shelter — was administered by the Worldwide United Way.
“That’s going to be for $16,885, so $10,000 of that is going to our United Way Community Fund here locally and this will be put to use for things like rental assistance, utility assistance, basically the needs of our people in Murray and Calloway County affected by this pandemic,” he said. “The other $6,885 is going to go to Soup for the Soul and that’s going to be for the summer feeding program for the kids of this community as the schools are not going to be picking up summer feeding this year (due to the pandemic).
“Now, the other part of this comes from the CARES Act (which put more than $2 trillion into an economic stimulus package to mainly benefit Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic). We’re getting in the neighborhood of $24,000 from that. I think (Murray-Calloway County) Need Line is getting about $2,000 from that, the (Murray-Calloway County) Senior Citizens Center is getting right around $11,000 for the Meals on Wheels program, plus we’re going to be getting $5,000 that will go to the community fund to help build that war chest.
“I also believe the Gentry House (a local shelter) is getting about $3,000 from this. To me, it was a no brainer for us to get involved (after Hansen informed the United Way of this opportunity) and we’re really into this kind of thing. Myself and (Murray-Calloway Board President) S.G. Carthell are spending a whole lot of time on this each week.”
The community fund is something that was formed during the winter and marked a major change in how the local affiliate conducted its business. Before, it spent much of its time determining how much assistance to give multiple local agencies that were under its umbrella. The community fund concept was encouraged by the worldwide office and is designed for local affiliates to provide assistance at a much faster pace, the idea being it did not have to worry anymore about determining how much to give each agency.
Now, the local affiliate is dealing directly with people in need and McCreary said that, ever since last week. he has gained a full understanding of why the community fund idea was pushed so heavily by the worldwide office.
“Let me tell you, I’ve been reading some of the applications that have been coming in for this and they’re truly heartbreaking. We’ve got a lot of folks in tough shape right now,” he said. “The time had come for us to do something different and that was my concern and that was S.G.’s concern and I feel that we’re finally starting to have a impact because this community fund doesn’t go away when this pandemic is over.
“If we can continue to build this fund, then the next time we have something else, like a tornado or storm damage or something where people are displaced or under stress, we can direct that money quickly to those people in need.”
“We’re excited about the opportunity to give back and that’s what the United Way is all about,” Carthell said, adding that the community fund has been as high as $7,500 so far. “Most of that, though, has been given to the folks that are needing it, and that’s what this fund was designed for.
“We still support (all of the other agencies it has helped over the years), to whom we have given hundreds of thousands of dollars and we’re all in this together. But we’re moving in a direction where, now, we can help people more directly when they’re needing that help.”
Anyone needing assistance can apply on the Murray-Calloway County affiliate's website, www.mccunitedway.org.
JOHN WRIGHT • jwright@murrayledger.com