There’s a new director at the helm at United Way of Eastern Utah and Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with newbie, Megan Cummings to get to know her a little bit.
“I grew up in a small town in Indiana. I did undergrad in Indiana, did a Master’s Degree in Spanish, traveled abroad, have lived all over the U.S. Most recently was in Montana working for a non-profit, ran operations for non-profit there. My husband and I moved here a little over a year and a half ago, so I don’t have a ton of time in the area under my belt but it’s a great community so far,” said Cummings. She was brought to the area when your husband accepted a position with Bureau of Land Management. Her family has really enjoyed their time here and she looks forward to getting busy at United Way of Eastern Utah.
She has dived in and has been busy with the agency’s Sole2Souls Program. “Not everybody can afford a new pair of shoes. Not every kid in the community, when they are growing and wearing out shoes, not everybody can afford a new pair. So this wonderful program Sole2Souls it enables kids to have new shoes. So we get some grant funding, we get donations from the community and we’ve got shoes that we can give to kids through their schools,” said Cummings. Most of the time it’s school counselors that reach out to United Way of Eastern Utah when they have a student that is in need.
Another great program that is ongoing is the Diaper Drive which helps babies in our area. “We’ll always accept diapers, you know, babies need clean bums and we care about that. We care about the health of the babies in our community. Again, not everybody can afford brand new package of diapers as often as babies need diapers. So that is one area where we have stepped in and we really want to take care of the people in our community,” said Cummings. The United Way of Eastern Utah works closely with Southeastern Utah Health Department to implement this program.
The one program that Cummings was looking forward to was working with the Live.Love.Local Cancer Assistance Program. “When there are community members diagnosed with cancer, they can’t always afford the gas to drive to their treatment, to drive to Provo, to drive over the mountain. This is again because of the generosity of grant funding, generosity of the community, we’re able to purchase gas cards and give those to cancer patients,” said Cummings. There is an application process for this program and you can find it on the United Way of Eastern Utah’s website.
If anyone would like to make a donation towards the Sole2Souls Program, Diaper Drive or Live.Love.Local program may swing by the office to make that donation. The United Way of Eastern Utah office is located at 81 North 200 East in Price.