Tucked in a basement on Austin’s Main Street, a woman sits at a desk juggling a flurry of clients’ problems.

The sign out front is small, and some people who don’t seek the organization, or this woman’s help, don’t know it is there.

It’s Mower Council for the Handicapped. The woman is Paulette Huntley, an advocate, and one of just several who help those in need. Folks at the United Way, however, know very well Huntley is there, along with Director Gary Jacobson, other employees and the organization’s key services.

While the United Way doesn’t completely fund MCH — as other funds come from donations, charitable gambling and the Hormel Foundation — the allotment is significant.

“Huge,” Huntley said .

In 2013, Mower County United Way gave MCH $46,300 — money the organization otherwise couldn’t operate without. Without such money, Huntley couldn’t help the people who give her hugs at the end of the day, and she wouldn’t have her cherished job.

“I love what we do,” she said. “I just love it.”

Like so many others at service organizations around Mower, Huntley is grateful.

So are the handicapped who need the organization’s assistance, whether that be help with paperwork, assistance, wheelchairs, walkers or medical supplies. Behind a locked door, the MCH houses an array of wheelchairs, walkers, kneeling walkers, raised toilet seats, shower seats, canes and more. People can borrow those items for extended periods, if needed, or eventually purchase them.

Without the United Way, the above mentioned wouldn’t happen without a lot of scrambling and uncertainty.

“We’ve been pondering that because, what happens if United Way wasn’t here? What would we do?” Huntley said.

The United Way is helping MCH in one more way this year: with volunteers. It’s not easy for Huntley to explain everything MCH does, coupled with the fact some people don’t know the organization exists. Liaisons have become the middlemen, or so to speak. They can help solve both those problems.

“We have liaisons now,” Huntley said. “They come in and know our business, and that has been hugely helpful. Ours is from the physical therapy department at Mayo. We love her, and we think she is really good at getting to know our business and what we do here.”

Just a few blocks east, inside the Mower County Senior Center building (which also benefits from United Way), another organization uses the United Way in a very similar way. It’s The Arc of Mower County, an organization that offers individual and family advocacy, a recreation center and special olympics opportunities for mentally disabled.

Without the United Way, the Arc would potentially suffer, or not operate at all. The organization doesn’t receive a lot of state grant money, something Huntley at MCH noted, as well. Grants are often steered toward brand-new programs, so Arc needs the $65,000 it received from United Way in 2013.

“I don’t even think we’d have our doors open if we didn’t [get that funding],” said Dawn Helgeson, executive director.

Perhaps Arc board treasurer Aaron DeVries understands as well as anybody just how significant United Way’s funding is.

“United Way is the largest portion of our budget, from Special Olympics, to the advocacy piece, to Our Place Recreation Center,” he said. “It makes up a large chunk of our funding.”

However, Huntley, DeVries and Helgeson all noted funding for such service organizations all starts at ground level.

“We just want to thank the community for supporting the United Way and all the organizations they provide funding for,” Helgeson said.

MCH and Arc are just two of 26 agencies that received a total of $800,000 in funding from the United Way in 2013.

 

Where the money goes:

Organization Name     2013 Grant

Adams Ambulance   $5,000

Apple Lane   $25,000

Arc Mower County $65,000

Catholic Charities $12,900

Cedar Branch  $39,740

Cedar Valley Services $25,000

Children’s Dental Health Services $34,500

Crime Victims Resource Center $30,000

Girl Scouts $16,000

Habitat for Humanity $5,000

Hormel Home $20,000

Ladies Floral Club $3,600

Mayo Clinic Austin $2,000

Mower Council

for the Handicapped $46,300

Mower County Mentoring $12,000

Mower County Senior Center $39,600

Parenting Resource Center $70,800

Red Cross $44,500

Salvation Army $83,000

SEMCAC $30,000

Southern Minnesota

Regional Legal Services $15,000

Twin Valley Boy Scouts $12,500

Wapiti Meadows $45,000

Welcome Center $38,060

Workforce Development $25,000

YMCA  $54,500

 

Total: $800,000

*Information provided by United Way of Mower County