It took a little longer than usual, but United Way Estevan has reached its fundraising goal for 2013.
President Dawn Schell said the organization climbed over the $350,000 mark on Nov. 26. Schell said reaching the goal is a huge relief and will allow them to fulfill all of the requests from the various member agencies they provide funding to.
"The two most important things are that we made our goal and we can fulfill all of our obligations to the organizations we planned on helping."
For the only the second time in its 37-year history, the United Way did not reach its goal at their annual telethon in October. As the telethon went off the air, they had raised $336,000.
Despite the disappointment, the organization vowed to reach their goal and thanks to the efforts of their many volunteers, they did just that.
Schell credited the members of the United Way board for their determination in seeing that they reached their goal in 2013. She said many of them went above and beyond to reach the $350,000 mark.
"They went canvassing at their workplaces and things like that," she said. "The community too, a lot of people when they found out we hadn't reached our goal gave us a double donation. The community really needs to be proud of all they accomplished in helping us get there.
"This has been a situation we haven't been in in over 30 years. None of us who have been on the board for 15-plus years have ever seen this be an issue. It made us see it from a different light and it will help us see it from a different light next year."
Although the United Way was able to continue its streak of reaching their goal, one notable streak did end as the Kingston, Ont. United Way reached their goal before the Estevan UW, which had been the first in Canada for well over 20 years.
