The United Way of Davidson County has announced that employees of Davidson County government and the Kimberly-Clark/Lexington Mill each won a statewide campaign award
given by the United Way of North Carolina. The “Spirit of North Carolina Awards for Campaign Excellence” were developed to recognize companies, governmental entities and other groups that demonstrate campaign excellence and community commitment. Awards are presented annually to companies and/or organizations during the United Way of North Carolina’s annual meeting. Organizations and companies are judged on a variety of criteria outlined in the Spirit of North Carolina Standards of Excellence, including leadership giving, volunteerism, employee participation and giving levels, year-round education, incentive programs and campaign rallies just to name a few. The Davidson County employees 2008 United Way campaign won the Spirit Award based on a number of unique additions to this past year’s campaign, including the creation of an in-house DVD that enabled county employees to tell their own United Way stories to employees. County departmental events that supported the United Way this year included: a countywide softball tournament, county employee golf tournament, pancake breakfast fundraiser, chili cookoff, fall festival and a United Way/county employee appreciation cookout. Other events included a bake sale, nacho cheese sale, a coffee-soup-ice cream sale, a yard sale and bake sale. Also, a 50/50 raffle, Halloween costume contest and a raffle for a Wii gaming system were conducted during the campaign. A play titled “From the Fire: Davidson County and the Peacock Trial” was presented twice in the Old Court House, with all proceeds going to the United Way campaign. The Kimberly-Clark/Lexington Mill United Way campaign began early in the spring of 2008 with planning committee meetings and continued through the late fall of 2008. The company not only managed to sustain employee interest all year long, but through a series of hands-on volunteer work projects, communitywide fundraising events and in-house testimonials provided by Kimberly-Clark employees, the 2008 campaign will go down as one of the best business campaigns ever conducted in Davidson County.
Events included a 54-team all-day golf tournament, a major motorcycle charity event, a book sale, TV raffle, 50/50 raffles and a charity lunch at the plant. Kimberly-Clark employees also participated in the United Way’s Week of Caring by completing projects at Davidson County Cancer Services and Crisis Ministry in Lexington.