Our award winners are individuals and businesses who stepped up in extraordinary ways in 2022 to help their neighbors reach their full potential. Their service to United Way and Bartholomew County is inspiring.
GIVE Award - First Financial Bank
The Give Award is presented to an individual or company who goes above and beyond promoting philanthropy in our community and First Financial Bank certainly does that.
First Financial sends volunteers for not only our major volunteer days like Day of Caring and Day of Service – they volunteer throughout the year whenever needed. They stuff backpacks for back to school, they teach financial literacy classes, they serve on the United Way board and committees – And somehow, they actually increased their volunteer hours with us this past year.
When we had our Community Food Drive this past April, First Financial allowed us to use all of their branches in Bartholomew County as drop-off points for the community to leave food donations. And their employees inventoried the food for us to make sorting easier.
First Financial provides United Way with grants through their foundation AND they have steadily increased their giving to their workplace campaign.
Individual ADVOCATE Award - Veronica Prevost
The individual Advocate Award is reserved for members of our community who work relentlessly to give a voice and support to those who do not feel heard or have the ability or opportunity to be heard. Recipients of this award have passion for and see a better life for those around them.
Veronica Prevost perfectly embodies everything our Advocate of the Year Award stands for.
Veronica is a pillar in our community and her work with United Way is one example of her commitment to making Bartholomew County better.
Her hard work has been instrumental in bringing Emerging Leaders United back after the pandemic and she has helped steer the course for this important Philanthropic Society. She is a leader and nurturer in her company’s workplace campaign, and she is among the first to get involved and volunteer when United Way has a need. Her wisdom and leadership make a difference for United Way and the community we serve.
Corporate ADVOCATE Award - Centra Credit Union
The Corporate Advocate Award is reserved for businesses in our community who work relentlessly to lift-up give and support those who do not feel heard. Recipients of this award have passion for and see a better life for those around them.
Centra Credit Union is one of our most committed partners. Their advocacy for local causes that are near and dear to our heart is amazing. Centra always shows up. From friendly bank tellers to the CEO, Rick Silvers, - Centra understands that championing local causes that help people – makes our community stronger.
VOLUNTEER Award -Avril Schutte
The Volunteer of the Year award is given to an individual who gives their time and talent to make our community better.
Her belief in our mission shines so brightly, that she was the perfect person to lead Women United. She spent countless hours forming the structure of the philanthropic societies as well as Women United’s new fund: Funding Tomorrow which helps single mothers with emergent expenses. Avril’s enthusiasm was infectious as she contributed her ideas, experience, and leadership skills in order to make United Way better but also to help our most vulnerable. I am so proud and honored to present the Volunteer of the Year award to Avril Schutte.
VOLUNTEER Award - Mission Indiana, Inc
The Volunteer Award is given to honor organizations that have demonstrated leadership in giving their time and skills to greatly benefit the community and United Way. This year, we are honoring Mission Indiana for the countless volunteer hours they spent developing and building a data collection tool from the ground up for the Avenues to Opportunity Initiative so that UW Certified agencies could easily and accurately report data that can be used to improve programming and outcomes. This is something that we at UW have talked about for many years but had yet to bring to a reality until now.
The journey with Mission Indiana started several years ago when the President of the organization, Matt Snodgrass joined the initiative’s guiding team with the hopes that the nonprofit could serve in a way that is in alignment with their mission of leveraging existing community resources for the advancement of disadvantaged youth, families, and individuals. Matt quickly saw the opportunity to improve the ease and accessibility of collecting data from the agencies involved in the initiative. Given his background in IT, he enlisted Craig Greathouse who graciously and patiently helped to make the idea a reality.
LIVE UNITED Award - Roger Lang
The Live United Award is the highest award we present. It represents a lifetime of service to United Way of Bartholomew County. We could not be prouder than to present this Award to Roger Lang.
Roger has been a volunteer, advocate, and generous donor for decades to United Way. But, more importantly, he is a mentor and friend. Roger’s contributions to United Way are far too numerous to list. Few people in Bartholomew County have been more committed to United Way than Roger.
In addition to being a former Board member and having served on every committee we have at one time or another – Roger is always willing to roll up his sleeves and do whatever needs to be done. He is a truly amazing volunteer.
