Every year, Gaila Demel, United Way of Central Kansas executive director, goes to all of the Great Bend fifth-grade classes to talk about the United Way. Each student is given a poster to draw a picture depicting his or her vision of United Way and its 23 Community Partners and also incorporating the UWCK campaign theme. This year’s theme was “Step Up To The Plate.”

United Way then enlists judges to pick out the best of all the pictures. Volunteers then get to work, putting the posters into frames and getting letters out to all the winners. Community leaders from the past year receive the posters.

This year the poster winners for Great Bend are: Holy Family Elementary School: MacKenzie LaViolette, who presented her poster to Farmers Bank & Trust (represented in the accompanying photo by Robert Rugan and Bobbi LaViolette) and Claris Snapp, who presented her poster to First Kansas Bank (represented by Paul & Elise Snapp); Park Elementary School: Marissa Boone presented her poster to Midwest Energy (represented by James Wright); Eisenhower Elementary School: Mayci Craven presented her poster to Barry and Monica Bowers, and Nataly Chavez presented her poster to Keller Real Estate (represented by Jeff Keller); Central Kansas Christian Academy: Morgan MacKinney presented her poster to Great Bend Public Library (represented by Steve Kummer, Amy Mayhill and Gail Santz).

“We enjoy going into the schools and sharing with the students what United Way of Central Kansas does for our communities. This is a way to show students how volunteerism and giving makes an impact where they live,” Demel said.