The response has just been wonderful. They say, ‘Oh, you’re United Way, saw you on television last night; we know what you do in the community and we want to talk to you about that’.

These gift cards will really help out. We’re so appreciative of the city of Arvada.

For the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be designing new strategies to conduct a meaningful campaign so we’re able to meet the needs of our partner agencies.

The first step that you make is to reach out and help your neighbor. And that’s what United Way is about, helping your neighbor. Contributions stay here in our community and they benefit our community.

They began about a month ago, and what we’re seeing is a pretty marked increase in contributions.

We have to take care of ourselves in times like these. And that means we’re going to have to get really aggressive and work even harder.

We’re making sure that those cards will be used the right way. (We) think that about 700 to 800 homes will need some assistance in some fashion.