AREA UNITED WAY AT 90 PERCENT OF GOAL

The Area Wide United Tuesday topped 90 percent of its fund-raising campaign goal of $500,000 Tuesday.

"As of today we're at 90.77 percent," said Dorothy Klein, executive director of the agency.

That means about $50,000 is still needed for the campaign to make its goal.

"We're very pleased with the progress," she said. "We are hopeful that we can achieve our goal."

Klein said the largest percentage of contributions to the campaign come through in-house solicitations -- employers asking their employees to give.

"That represents about half the dollars raised," she said.

Calvin Chapman has been working with the campaign this year, especially the in-house campaigns.

Chapman said the campaign is about $50,000 to $60,000 ahead of the same time last year.

"We hope people will respond so that we can reach our goal."

The success of the United Way campaign each year is due in part of contributions from Procter and Gamble.

The Cape Girardeau plant represents the largest contributor to the campaign.

This year, the 1,300 employees at Procter and Gamble donated $99,170. A corporate contribution of $51,000 was added to that figure.

"That's incredible," said Chapman. "And they come through every year."

Chapman said he too hopes the campaign will reach its goal.

"Cape Girardeau is a good community with a lot of good people," Chapman said. "They share and they are concerned about their fellow man. I think United Way has a good reputation; about 95 percent of the money remains local."

Early in the campaign, organizers expressed some concern that the outpouring of generosity during the summer floods would hurt other fund-raising activities.

"We've not heard, `I gave to the flood,'" Chapman said. "I think people realize that the United Way services 25 different agencies, all good agencies that do good work. The most efficient way to collect money is to let one agency do the work and then distribute the money."