Volunteer shares passion for United Way through work with Purdue campaign
September 19, 2013
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Sheryl Willison, senior chair for the Office of the Vice President for Research/Discovery Park for the 2013 Purdue United Way Campaign. |
Every year, the United Way is in need of volunteers to serve their local communities. Sheryl Willison is one such person whose passion for helping others has led her to serve as a senior chair for the United Way campaign at Purdue.
Willison is an administrative assistant for Discovery Park, a component of the Office of the Vice President for Research. She is the senior chair of Office of the Vice President for Research/Discovery Park for the 2013 United Way campaign. Eager to serve in a leadership capacity, she is focused on building an atmosphere of teamwork among OVPR/Discovery Park employees as they serve the community.
What do you do in your role as senior chair for Discovery Park?
I ask for volunteers to be the junior chair. I communicate with volunteers during and after the United Way campaign, checking to see how things went, asking what we can do differently and thanking them again for their time. In years past, we have done bake sales in Burton Morgan and have sold ice cream sandwiches that were donated. We’ve done a few different things in the past, but it really depends on what the team wants to do. It’s a team effort.
How do you encourage others to donate to United Way?
You have to lead by example. When my daughters were little, my husband and I were coordinators for our church. I would take my young children to get groceries for whatever family needed supplies, and we would deliver them. That’s where I get the team atmosphere. It’s enjoyable, and you learn a lot about what is going on in your community. Seeing those families line up for food every Wednesday night tugs at your heart. There was also a time when a single mom that we know didn’t balance her checkbook correctly and was short money. She needed help because she has four kids. We were glad that we had the extra means to help her out. Being part of United Way is not only for Purdue, but also the community.
How did you become passionate about United Way?
I became passionate about it through working with my church. I’m a hospitality-type of person, willing to help where I’m needed. You have to cultivate those values and skills, and people recognize that. When Anne Parks, the director of the United Way at Purdue, has meetings, I’ll just help her out. When I see something that needs to be done, I try to do it.
Besides your role as senior chair, how else have you been involved in United Way?
I worked in one of the Tippecanoe County schools. They did Blue Jean Days where faculty and staff paid a dollar to wear blue jeans for a day. I’ve been involved with the United Way effort at Purdue for seven years. I’ve been a team captain, a junior chair and a senior chair. I’ve been senior chair for the past two years because I appreciate the opportunity to help United Way.
What is your favorite thing about United Way?
It helps people help themselves. It doesn’t just help adults, it helps children. There are such a wide variety of people you can help and touch their lives in some way. Even if it’s to help them with a month’s rent for an apartment or to buy food for the week, they don’t forget that.
What do you hope others will learn from your work with this campaign?
There’s so many different ways to help. If you can afford to help financially, that’s great, but if you can go beyond financial help and volunteer with a reading program, for instance, I think it’s a huge benefit for our children. Their ability to read and then grow from that is important. The inspiration of us helping those young readers is going to be beneficial later on. You see the benefit down the line, but I think reading with children is time well spent. There are many other programs United Way has that benefit others.
Writer: Hannah Harper, harper4@purdue.edu