Celebrate United 2026 Recap

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Fundraising Totals

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported our Campaign Kickoff. Together, our wonderful community helped raise $46,029!

Tickets & Sponsorships: $18,660
Donations: $21,360
Centerpiece Silent Auction: $5,034
Keepsakes: $691
Miscellaneous: $284

Support Our Campaign!

Presenting Sponsor

We are so grateful to this year's Presenting Sponsor, Olympic Bluffs Cidery & Lavender Farm! One of the goals owners Scott and Ginger had in establishing this venture, was to create and foster community. This value is also demonstrated in their support of our 2026 - 27 Campaign Kickoff, Celebrate United. Businesses like Olympic Bluffs, are a crucial part of creating a healthy, thriving Clallam County.

We hope you will join us in supporting the businesses - like Olympic Bluffs Cidery - that support our community!

Read more about Olympic Bluffs Cidery & Lavender Farm:

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Event Photos Are Live!

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Excerpts from Our Panel

Jennifer Lu'Becke, Youth Services Librarian, NOLS

To me, literacy is communication. Speaking, listening, writing, and reading effectively. Literacy is how we learn about ourselves, others, and the world. It isn't just reading a book, it is how we process that information. Literacy helps us in all aspects of life, from filling out a job application, looking over a contract, reading our medical records, and so much more. I also think of literacy as an interest in lifelong learning, always evolving and growing.

As a youth services librarian who loves to provide story time, I think more about those pre-literacy skills, such as building vocabulary, letter knowledge, and getting children interested and excited about a book. For a young child, literacy skills can be as simple as learning how to hold a book and how to turn it in the right direction and turning the pages without ripping them. Reading books to young children helps build vocabulary, the larger a child's vocabulary, the easier time they will have with reading and other academic success. Talking and pointing to everyday objects helps build vocabulary, and when children don't have strong early literacy skills and experiences, they are often behind in education, and it creates many unnecessary hurdles.

Dr. Terri Sabella, CEO, NOHN

Health literacy is something that we talk about from the very foundations of our education as health care providers, because we understand that a patient's ability to understand their diagnosis, to understand instructions that they're given by their provider, to understand follow-up care, warnings that they're given, perhaps, is critical to their ability to self-manage their conditions, and to seek out appropriate preventive care. It also plays a role in the trust relationship they have with their provider team. If you don't understand what you're being told, you don't understand the expectations of outcomes, you may feel betrayed when things don't go exactly as they're planned, right?

We teach our staff to avoid jargony language like acronyms. Healthcare is full of so many acronyms. And so we teach people from the get-go not to use that kind of terminology, to use plain language to communicate with patients. We are also on high alert when we are interacting with patients to watch for whether someone has someone else filling out paperwork for them, or quickly hands over a device, or is handed paperwork and brings it back and it's not filled out. It may be that that person has literacy challenges that they are not willing to share with you and so staff are taught to take those patients on in a different way and find alternate ways to communicate with them.

Molly Pringle, Plan Coordinator, Recompete

Recompete is a $35.6 million federal investment in Clallam and Jefferson counties, and the whole point is to create and connect people to good jobs. What's the first step in even getting a job? You have to know where to look for jobs. You have to be able to fill out an application. You may have to have a resume or go for an interview. And these things can be difficult for folks with lower levels of literacy. Recompete is here to invest in some of our higher paying industries like maritime, forestry, manufacturing, things like that that are very in demand. And if you expand the definition of literacy to gaining a set of competencies to navigate the world, when you zoom back in to our region and you're thinking about financial security and opportunity, that means that you're likely going to need to navigate the trades. There's a misconception that some trades jobs are just walk-on jobs. And today that's just not true. The more tech there is, the higher level of specialized literacy you'll need.

Once folks get into a good job, if they haven't had that opportunity before, they're going to need some support with financial literacy and how to manage their money if they have debt, if they have never banked before, and if they've been facing a benefits cliff. You know, once you make a certain amount of money, you're no longer eligible for some public benefits, and that can be really scary and difficult to navigate. So financial literacy in that way is really important.

Why Dolly Parton's Imagination Library?

Since the Imagination Library is a vital part of United Way's literacy efforts in Clallam County, we want to bring you the perspective of Youth Librarian Jennifer Lu'Becke on why it is so important to support this incredible program:

"Many families might not have the financial means to buy books, and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library mails free books to any child from birth to five. Research shows that children with a home library have a richer vocabulary and are more likely to succeed in school. Having books in the home also encourages independent reading. Even if they can't read words yet, they're still reading the pictures. Children are more interested in books and reading when they have meaningful interactions with books. By having books in the home, they have instant access, and it gives caregivers a greater opportunity to read to their child. One thing that I really like about the Dolly Books is that they give informational tips on how the caregiver can read to their child so that it becomes a more powerful learning experience."

Click below to donate directly to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Clallam County:

Click Here

Literary Centerpieces Silent Auction

We were blown away by the support for our book-lovers' silent auction packages. Community members, Impact Partners, board members, and staff really got creative with each of the curated, literary themed baskets. From cozy blankets and reading lights, to bundles of incredible gift cards, to entire collections of horror books, we were able to far surpass our goals both in terms of number of centerpieces and money raised! Thank you to everyone who donated, bid on, or purchased a silent auction item.