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UB opens SEFA campaign
UB folks receive help from United Way, Karwan stresses
By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor
The many ways in which United Way organizations have benefited UB's own large, extended family were the focus of this year's 10th annual SEFA campaign kickoff, held on Tuesday in the Center for the Arts.
Jennifer Gurz, a development specialist
at the SPCA—a United Way Agency—holds Kit-Cat (left) and Baby
Ruth during their appearance at the SEFA kickoff event on
Tuesday.
PHOTO: DONNA LONGENECKER
While the yearly State Employees Federated Appeal benefits hundreds of thousands of Western New Yorkers, Mark Karwan, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and chair of this year's campaign, stressed the fact that many who receive help from SEFA agencies are people who work at UB.
"It's not just (for) other people, it's for ourselves. One out of every three or four UB employees has been a recipient of services of SEFA agencies," Karwan said. "In fact," he added, "the SEFA agencies that are here today were invited specifically because they are serving UB employees."
Joseph Gardella, professor of chemistry and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences who was the special speaker for the kickoff event, noted that it is a great source of pride to him to be associated with UB because of the university's record in supporting SEFA. Gardella also has a personal stake in the campaign's success.
"Why I'm so passionate about the SEFA campaign and the local and national agencies that are supported can be rooted back to when we adopted my daughter into our family. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and like a lot of people, we didn't know what that meant," he said, pointing out that his family immediately sought out the services of United Cerebral Palsy (now ASPIRE).
"They spent a lot of time explaining the situation and eventually serving our daughter, getting us started on the resources that were available in the community and opening us up to the wide variety of resources that support people with disabilities.
"That experience taught us that there are many people in the community who can't speak about their needs and so it's up to us in the community who can speak—and many of us are here at the university getting services every day. We're not just donating to worthy causes, but supporting the community—we are the community," Gardella said.
Karwan joked about the task of coming up with a theme for this year's campaign, noting that, at first, there was something for everybody before the campaign organizers settled on "Our Community is in Your Hands."
"For the public, we had 'a good deed is a filled need.' For the engineer in me, I said there is 'strength in numbers,' or 'high impact cash.' But what all these things really point to is that the community is in your hands. UB has a long history of being very generous. It's a very significant way we can show our support," he said.
Karwan introduced President William R. Greiner as UB's greatest SEFA champion, a designation the president politely declined in favor of praising the university's volunteers as the "perennial heroes" of the campaign.
"This is the 13th and last time that I will come before you on this occasion to ask you to step up and do what you're going to do anyway—you don't need any prodding from me. I'm just kind of a punctuation mark for the continuation of the SEFA campaign," he said. In typical fashion, Greiner traded the podium for the floor. "I've got to get out there with my people," he said, moving into the crowd.
"One more time I ask, and I know you'll respond as you always have, that you go out and do this right thing for Western New York. We do collectively hold our community in our hands."