HUGH LOGAN, VOLUNTEER EXTRAORDINAIRE

Hugh Logan knows well the value of pooling resources to help non-profit agencies in need of financial help.

That was one of the primary reasons he and a handful of other Cape Girardeau businessmen formed the predecessor to the United Way in Cape Girardeau, the United Fund, in 1955.

The philanthropic 91-year-old has raised funds on behalf of the organization ever since; and, except for an eight-year stint as the United Way's paid executive director, he has volunteered his time and efforts.

Logan said the United Way, unlike other non-profit organizations, combines fund-raising resources to help several agencies.

"It saves on man power," he said. "It raises money with less cost for staff than any other organization around certainly less than what the government does. I think their administrative costs are about 6 percent."

Logan in 1955 owned Moon Distributing, a wholesale distributor of distilled spirits. He continued to manage the company while serving as a volunteer until his retirement in 1965. He now is the only original founder of the United Way still able to work for the agency.

The unpretentious Logan finds it hard to explain why he would devote the greatest portion of his life to volunteer fund raising for charitable causes.

"I guess I just kind of like to do it," he said. "It was a little different when I was in business; I was pretty busy for those 10 years when I was running the business and working for United Fund.

"It's something I've done for a lot of my life. Once you get involved in that and are pretty successful at it; well, when the guy who takes your job asks you to help, it's pretty hard to say no."

United Way has expanded since its humble beginnings in 1955, and now serves 25 agencies in the Cape Girardeau area.

But regardless of the size of United Way this year, the organization's aim is to raise $470,000 Logan said local businesses and individuals are more likely to give today than ever before.

"The way many look at it is, `If not for charitable giving, where would we be, where would our taxes be?'" he said. "I think people here are more likely to give now than they were maybe 20 or 30 years ago."

Logan said anyone who sees the unselfish, committed work of some of the volunteers in the agencies the United Way contributes to would not hesitate to give.

"It's beyond reason what the Salvation Army does in the town alone," he said. "The people they help overnight, the families they help from disasters it's beyond belief all that they do.

"It's amazing in this age what those people on staff at the Salvation Army will work for. Again, it's a matter of dedication to duty."

Also, the United Way surveys all agencies it helps before agreeing to contribute to assure that contributions are going to the people in need, not an organizational bureaucracy. "If they find somebody's spending all their money on staff, then they won't contribute," Logan said.

In his role at United Way, Logan is responsible for seeking contributions from business owners. He said it's important to secure contributions from "the boss" at a business.

"As I see it, employees will give when their employer is a liberal giver," he said. "If the boss doesn't give much, they won't."

Logan said one of the keys to successful fund raising is to believe in the cause, an attitude that is quickly apparent to the businesses that are solicited even those that refuse to contribute.

"You just thank them anyway," Logan said with a chuckle. "You know everybody isn't going to give when you start. Then there's the putter-offers who say, `Come back next week and I'll catch you.' Well, when you're a volunteer, you don't want to go back 10 or 12 times; it would wear out all the volunteers, which, of course, is why the putter-offers do it.

"That's why some volunteers get discouraged. Usually when I get my list of names, knowing the community like I do and the business people, I'll pick two or three of the ones I know will contribute and go to them first.

"But a greenhorn might go to the worst prospect first, and he gets discouraged because they shoot him down. He's no longer enthused. As they used to say, `He gets his dobbers down.'"

Logan said he isn't sure what motivates him to continue to volunteer for the United Way and other organizations through the years, but he can't see any reason to change his ways now.

"The day will come when I'll say, `Look, I don't believe I can do it anymore,'" he said. "But I think I'm as able now as I always was."