United Way Golf Outing Raises Over $58,000

A beautiful day of sun, golf and giving back to the community was had at the United Way golf outing on Sept. 16. 118 golfers and 12 nonprofit partners along with United Way and Emerging Leader volunteers gathered at the Washington County Golf Course.

This is the ninth annual event and the event has certainly grown over those years. In 2018 they held the first golf outing and raised $8,000. This year was bigger and better than ever. “Over the years we have grown it significantly. This year we had 118 golfers. We don’t have the final numbers yet but we know that a pretty solid number is that we raised over $58,000 this year,” Amanda Novotny, Emerging Leader and United Way member, said. This number beats last year’s goal of $57,000.

The program is designed to advocate, volunteer and learn about the nonprofits partners.

Networking was an important aspect of the outing as the nonprofits and Emerging Leaders themselves were set up around the course to educate people on the work they all do.

Novotny mentioned, “I think the biggest part with United Way and emerging leaders is just educating our communities of the nonprofits we have. We have found that not many people know that we have these resources out there for them if they do need them.”

Sponsorships are a vital part of keeping this event running and they thank their sponsors for coming back each year to support this event.

Katelyn Schotzko, who has been with United Way for three years and oversees the Emerging Leaders program, noted that many people look forward to the outing each year. This is because they get to do what they love, golf, while giving back to their community in a way that matters. She even said that some people are already asking when next year’s will be.

“A lot of our volunteers maybe don’t golf but they love the event. They see a lot of people, it’s kind of a one-stop-shop to meet all of our nonprofits and different volunteers and community members,” explained Angela Hartwell, Emerging Leaders board member since 2022.

She explained that getting the youth involved as well is an important aspect. There is no age limit for their volunteering and they even mentioned that people will bring their kids to help out.

Novotny and Hartwell co-chaired the golf outing this year but they had help from their eight other committee members in putting it all together.

This is not even close to the only event that Emerging Leaders and United Way puts on. The two groups are very intertwined as each Emerging Leader event goes into different United Way services.

“This one in particular (the golf outing) just goes into our general fund which funds over 25 nonprofit agency partner programs and a few key initiatives,” said Schotzko. These are initiatives like the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, the Mental Health Initiative, the 211 helpline and the Hartford resource center.

Schotzko, Hartwell and Novotny all said that community needs are continuing to rise and it is important for people to get out and give back to the community.

“Time and time again Washington County has shown up for Washington County and that’s what we need this year more than ever,” Schotzko noted.

Those who are interested in joining either United Way or Emerging Leaders can visit their website to get connected or register.

But what is Emerging Leaders? They are a group of professionals who invest their time, talent and resources to help out the community. Their mission is to provide opportunities to lead, serve and grow and ignite and inspire one another. There are over 70 young professionals in Washington County who are emerging leaders.

By volunteering, the volunteers not only get to help out in their community but they also get to learn about the nonprofits and the work they do to serve others.