By Pepper Parr
September 18th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton Hamilton United Way is driven by people.
With a staff compliment of 40 plus a couple of additional people during the 15 week fund raising drive they have their work cut out for them The drive this year is to raise $12,500,000
UWHH (United Way Halton Hamilton) takes in four sponsored staff; people who come from the private and public sectors and are seconded to the United Way for 15 weeks
Jenna Baird, a provincial civil servant seconded to the United Way for 15 weeks.
One of the four this year is Jenna Baird who works as an Inspector with the Ministry of Labour
Her experience will be put to good use at the United Way as they reach out to the community during the fund raising phase as they are now in
Jenna moved into the Region in 2019 and wanted to know more about where she now lived. When she learned there was an opportunity to take part in what the United Way does she applied and was accepted and became one of four people that are referred to is as sponsored employees.
The idea of “giving back” has always been something Jenna Baird was interested in doing but she hadn’t found a place where she could do very much.
The United Way was an opportunity to make the giving back very real.
It wasn’t the kind of work that Jenna Baird did while with the Ministry of Labour.
We met Jenna at the United Way Big Plane Pull – she wasn’t part of a pulling team when we interviewed her – she was on standby if a team was short one person. Each pulling team needed 15 members.
Her chance to pull came at the very end of the contest – so there she was with her hands gripping a very thick rope and pulling really hard. It wasn’t hard enough to be in the top three but they did manage to cross the finish line.
We are going to circle back and talk to Jenna again when her assignment is finished to learn what she will take away from the experience and what she learned while the proudly wore her red T shirt.
