On Giving Tuesday United Way Raises Funds for New Warming Center

Tuesday, November 27 is ‘Giving Tuesday’, as Americans are encouraged to give generously to causes they feel are important to their local communities.

Susan Hay Patrick, CEO of Missoula County United Way is asking Missoulians to support several causes, but primarily on the Salvation Army’s proposed warming center.

“This year, our priority is to raise money for our friends at the Salvation Army,” said Hay Patrick. “They are opening a warming center during the coldest months of the year so that people in Missoula are not dying on the streets and have nowhere else to go. We’re calling it ‘Warm for the Holidays’, working with the Salvation Army and other service providers that will be staffing the Warming Center for folks on the street between December 1^st and April 1^st.”

Hay Patrick said there are other causes that the United Way is highlighting for Giving Tuesday.

“On a lighter note, we are always raising funds for our ‘Dolly Parton Imagination Library,” she said. “That’s a program that mails a brand new book free of charge once a month to all enrolled kids from birth to age five, so that by the time they start kindergarten, they have a love of language and reading, and it starts them on that path to lifelong learning.”

Other programs Hay Patrick said the United Way is promoting include Project Tomorrow Montana suicide prevention initiative.