The Portage Plains United Way has officially kicked off their 2016 fundraising campaign, and they're setting the bar a little higher than last year. Executive Director Mandy Dubois kicked off the campaign this afternoon at a sold-out lunch gathering at the William Glesby Centre in Portage la Prairie.

After showing a short video outlining what the United Way means to its 12 member agencies, Dubois announced their campaign goal for the year. The United way is hoping to raise a total of $274,500, before the end of 2016. Dubois says she's confident the community will once again be able to help the organization achieve its goal.

"I have so much confidence in this community. They have not let me down so far, and I don't think they're going to. Just seeing the support I have here today with the sold out campaign luncheon, it's fantastic so I think we're going to hit it."

Last year's goal was $247,000, which the community managed to surpass in the final hours of the campaign period. The excess funds helped support numerous non-member agencies in the community, ranging from the Portage Pride Parade to the Alzheimer's Society for new programming.

It's looking like it could be another strong year for the United Way, with several donations already coming in. During the Campaign Kick Off luncheon, MIG Insurance provided a $2,000 cheque, while EF Moon provided $1,000. The biggest donation of the day was from Shoppers Drug Mart, through the company's Women's Health programs with a cheque for $10,000. Dubois says this early support is amazing and has her excited for the campaign period. 

Mandy Dubois accepts a cheque from Glen Paunch

"It's a huge boost. That's a lot of money. We don't see a lot of donations of that size, so we're going into the campaign already $10,000 into that goal."

Local Shoppers Pharmacy/Owner Glen Pauch presented the cheque, and says it felt great to provide the significant boost. He notes while Shoppers carries out their tree of life campaign each year, raising about $2,500 for the community, Pauch says it was exciting to provide such a large sum of funding to a great organization. He applied for the funding through Shoppers, and says nominating our local United Way for the grant was an obvious decision.

"United Way seemed to be the right fit, given that they can give the funding to the programs that need it. They can give it to those who need it most at the time. In working with Mandy she had a couple of ideas, and I think it fit well."

The United Way currently has 12 member agencies, with the two newest members - Recreation Opportunity For Kids and Sunset Palliative Care-- added at the beginning of last year's campaign.