Ten Campaigns and the Power of “We”
By Stacy Schiemann, Executive Director
United Way of Ashland County
At our campaign kickoff this year, we asked everyone in the room what “United We Rise” meant to them. They submitted their responses through a QR code, and the words appeared instantly on the screen. Technology has certainly changed over the course of ten campaigns!
Two words quickly became the center of the word cloud: together and community.
That did not surprise me. In the ten years since I moved back to Ashland County, I have heard those words everywhere—in my work, in meetings, and in conversations with people throughout the county. We talk a lot about working together for the good of the community. More importantly, I have watched people actually do it.
Surrounding those two big words were collaboration, teamwork, support, stronger together, lifting each other up, neighbor supporting neighbor, and people taking care of people. Looking at the finished word cloud, something occurred to me. After ten campaigns, I realized that the most important word in our United Way lingo may not be “United” or “Way.”
It may be “WE.”
When I began this work, I understood that a United Way campaign was a community effort. But I also felt the weight of being the person responsible for its success. If I worked hard enough, made enough calls, held enough meetings, and found the right message, we would reach the goal. Ten campaigns have taught me that it does not work quite that way. Hard work matters. So do the calls, the meetings, the planning, the difficult conversations, and the willingness to ask one more time. No campaign has ever come together easily. But no matter how hard one person works, one person cannot carry a community campaign.
My job is not to do all of it myself. My job is to bring people together around something worth accomplishing.
“WE” is the employee who gives a few dollars from every paycheck. It is the business that sets a goal and invites its employees to be part of something larger than themselves. It is the donor who quietly steps forward when the community needs something more.
“WE” includes our partner agencies doing difficult work every day, volunteers giving their time, board members accepting the responsibility to lead, and community members opening doors and making connections. It is the person who once received help and later finds a way to help someone else.
Last year’s campaign was a powerful example. Together, this community raised more than $1 million and unlocked a $1 million endowment that will support local needs for generations. That did not happen because of one person, one business, or one gift. It happened because people continued to step forward, right up until the end.
That is what “WE” can do.
Somewhere along the way, this work changed me, too.
I am more resilient than I was ten campaigns ago. I have learned to keep moving when I cannot see the whole path forward and to stay steady when the work gets difficult. I have learned that a setback does not mean the work is over. Sometimes it means we need another conversation, another idea, or another person willing to help.
The most important change, though, has been my sense of connection. In the beginning, I was learning how to get connected—learning the people, the places, the organizations, and the history that shape Ashland County. Over time, being connected grew into something much more meaningful: a real sense of connection. I learned that knowing a community and feeling that you truly belong to it are not the same thing. Having moved back home from a much larger metropolitan area, that sense of connection is especially important to me. There is something special about living and working in a smaller community where relationships overlap, people know one another’s stories, and you can see how one conversation or introduction can lead to something good.
I no longer simply know more people or understand the community better. I feel part of it. That sense of belonging means more to me than I can easily put into words.
It did not happen all at once. It was built campaign by campaign, challenge by challenge, and relationship by relationship. I am proud of the leader I have become, and I am proud of what has been accomplished over these ten campaigns. Reaching my tenth campaign is a personal milestone, but it is also a shared one. Each campaign has been built by people across our community who were willing to step forward and do their part.
And that is why “WE” stood out to me in the word cloud. After ten campaigns, I know this much: the work only gets done when we do it together.
And, for the record, to those who once bet I would not make it through my first year: ten campaigns later, I believe someone owes me the winnings. I will gladly donate them to this year’s campaign.
WE do this work together for our community that WE love so much.
