Hello, my name is Tiffany Hagan. My mom, Sue Berg, and I are this year’s co-chairwomen for the United Way of Freeborn County campaign.

When not working on the campaign, I work at Lou-Rich Inc. I have been there for 17 years. As some of you know, my mom also works at Lou-Rich. Many people ask how I work with my mom, and I can say that it is easy, most days. We work so well together that I think that is one of the reasons why we were asked to be co-chairwomen.

I have been married to my husband, Jason, for eight years. We have one daughter, Sadie, and she is 5. We live in Austin.

I have been asked where I give your donations for United Way. Since I work in Albert Lea I give my donations to Freeborn County. That is one nice thing about United Way; if you want to designate your dollars to a different county, you may do that.

Have you ever wondered how we decide what our dollar goal is for the year? We do not just add on a certain percentage amount to last year’s goal. Each of the agencies associated with United Way submitted an application requesting money for their activities. The allocations committee reviewed these applications, talked with the agency representatives and then decided what the need is for each of these agencies.

The total dollars from each of these agencies added together forms our goal, or we like to say “need.” Our need for this year is $592,000.

The people on the allocations committee include United Way board members and other Freeborn County people. There are 18 agencies presently in the United Way of Freeborn County.

These agencies are the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Girls and Boys Scouts, Crime Victims Crisis Center, Albert Lea Family Y, Cedar Valley Services. Senior Resources, Chemical Dependency Center, Domestic Abuse Project, Prevent Child Abuse, Lutheran Social Services, Adult Basic Education, Semcac, Parenting Resource Center, Arc of Freeborn County, and the Children’s Center.

We just finished the annual United Way Golf Outing. It was a lot of fun and we raised more than $5,800. We had 20 teams and 22 hole sponsors.

My mom and I don’t golf so we just drove around in a golf cart and took pictures of everyone. We had a great time! I want to thank everyone who worked to make this event a complete success.

Our next adventure will be the Third of July Parade. We are working on a float and will have some people from the agencies walking with us.

Our kickoff for the campaign will be on Sept. 11. We will hand out pledge cards at that time. Then my mom and I will begin to visit many businesses and clubs to explain a few things that United Way does for Freeborn County and how “Live United” affects us all.

Tiffany Hagan is the co-chairwoman of the 2008 fundraising campaign for the United Way of Freeborn County.