The Virginia Beach City Public Schools United Way campaign for 2014-15 has officially begun.

And, what big shoes we have to fill.

VBCPS boasts the highest employee United Way participation rate of all the neighboring school divisions. More than a third of all our staff – 36 percent – contributes to this campaign.  Some of our schools went above and beyond that average.  Last year, Pembroke Meadows lead elementary schools with United Way participation with 90.1 percent of staff helping the campaign. For the middle schools, Larkspur led the way with 58.6 percent of staff participating. At the high school level, Kempsville was in first place with 49.7 percent of the staff donating to the United Way.  Finally, from our departments, the Instructional Resource Center led the way with 90.9 percent.

Click here to see last year’s donor list. 

So what does that look like? Last year, thanks to the generous donations of our staff, VBCPS brought in more than $328,000.

Don’t forget about our students. Thanks to their efforts and fundraising, an additional $66,000 was raised for the United Way. That’s four percent more than our student campaign the year before.

Click here to see last year’s honorary and memorial donation list.

All totaled, VBCPS was responsible for donating $394,557 to the United Way and its qualifying non-profit organizations.

That’s a third of a million dollars brought in just by our school division.

That money goes to places doing good work being done right here in Hampton Roads.

Those are places such as the Children’s Hospital of King’s Daughters, the YMCA, the Virginia Beach SPCA, Meals on Wheels and many others.

Also, this money has come back to our teachers.

The Virginia Beach Education Foundation is number one designee for non-profit donations. As you know, this money provides needed grants to our teachers so that they can create even more enriching and engaging learning opportunities for students.

Because of the generous spirits of our VBCPS family, employees contributed more than $ 21,000 to the VBEF last year alone.

Now, here we are, starting with a blank slate for the 2014-15 school year. This year’s campaign begins today and will run through Nov. 14.

If you have any questions, contact Fran Thomas, United Way division coordinator, Office of Budget Development, at frances.thomas@vbschools.com or 263.1163.

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