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United Way Fall Campaign Opens at Mississippi College


Dr. Lee Royce

Mississippi College employees seek to raise $25,000 for United Way agencies in metro Jackson this fall.

That’s the new goal for the Baptist-affiliated university that generated $19,484 for United Way-supported programs last year.

United Way supports more than 50 human service programs in Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties that assist thousands of Mississippians in need.

Mississippi College gifts benefit programs like the Magnolia Speech School, the Shelter for Battered Women and Children, Goodwill Industries and Christians in Action.

The participation rate for MC’s more than 500 employees stood at 29 percent last fall. MC’s participation rate and total generated remains the leader among Jackson metro colleges.

“But we can do better with our United Way giving this year,” Mississippi College President Lee Royce said in letters to faculty and staff in early October.

Thousands of Mississippi children in after-school tutoring and recreation programs depend on United Way support, Royce said. So do hundreds of senior citizens receiving meals and modest financial support to help pay for water, power bills and rising costs to purchase medicine.

MC faculty and staff hope to raise their participation rate to 35 percent this fall.

Royce has been an active United Way leader since 1993. “I believe this is a tremendous way to address so many needs,” he said. “Giving to others remains a way of life in Mississippi, which traditionally ranks among the top states in the nation when measuring charitable giving as a percentage of personal income.”

The Bible speaks to giving to those less fortunate.

In Acts 20:35, it says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

The United Way fund drive at the Christian university’s main campus in Clinton and at the MC School of Law in Jackson should wrap up in early November.

For more information on Mississippi College’s United Way campaign, contact Shari Barnes, director of the university’s Community Service Center. Shari can be reached at sbarnes@mc.edu or 601-925-3267.