This year the United Way/High River Partnership invested $75,000 in the community. Town council has approved the allocations, and Manager of Community Support Services Shelley Koot says the High River Partnership Committee has made sure every program that benefits upholds their three pillars.

"The united Way has three focus areas, and that is healthy people strong communities, being all that kids can be, and from poverty to possibility. So we just ensure that the projects that we fund fit somehow into those particular categories. We say that all of our funds that are raised in High River stay in High River, so we make sure that the funds that we're giving out are for High River residents and benefiting them in some way."

Koot says the committee also makes sure the programs who receive funds are meeting a unique need in the community and are not duplicating a service or meeting a need that can be fed by another organization or ministry. She says the committee is a hard working group that's made great decisions.

"I'm really blessed to actually work with a committee of amazing volunteers. They're a dedicated bunch of women, actually, we don't have any men on our committee. They really value the services that these organizations do in the community. In addition to that, there's a great deal of respect for the organizations. They can do such great work with such little funds. And so, they stretch these dollars."

She says the committee typically receives applications for double the amount of money they have to invest in the community. Koot says she'd like to thank the committee for their dedication to choose how to invest the funds in the community.

"These women donate their time. We have monthly meetings, they help with fundraisers, they do campaign awareness throughout the year. Each year, we highlight the organizations that receive the funds, but I also want to do a shout out to the committee members who donate a great deal of time and put lots of effort into making sure that they're making the best decisions."

Koot says she'd also like to thank everyone who donates to the United Way and the to the United Way/High River Partnership. She says donations help to ensure all kids have access to healthy lunch programs, encourage reading, help new moms raise healthy babies, and help to ensure families and individuals have access to important supports and resources.

Here is a list of the organizations that the United Way/High River Partnership is investing in, as presented to High River Town Council.

$ 10,000 for Big Brothers and Big Sisters (Mentoring in High River)
$ 12,000 for Boys and Girls Club (Youth Programs)
$ 11,000 for Foothills Fetal Alcohol Society (Baby Talk)
$ 10,000 for Foothills SNAPS (Family Support)
$ 12,000 for Food for Thought (School lunches)
$ 4,000 for Literacy For Life (Dog Tails Program)
$ 6,000 for Rowan House (Branches Program)
$ 10,000 for Food Security Initiative (Funds for students and a pilot summer program)