Greater Twin Cities United Way

This guest blog post was written by Suzanne Pierazek, community relations manager at CenterPoint Energy.

For many years, CenterPoint Energy and our unions have joined together to support United Way in Minnesota. We’ve been recognized as the Best Labor/Management Cooperative Campaign by Greater Twin Cities United Way multiple times during the past five years.

“In both our personal lives and at work, we have all seen how people working together accomplish things that could not be achieved by one person,” said Latonya Smith, O.P.E.I.U., Local 12 representative. “That’s why I signed a letter of support for this year’s campaign, along with other union leaders at CenterPoint."

"If you visit our offices or union halls you will that see we created a poster that is being shared across the company. It has pictures of our union leaders signing the joint letter of support. We also sent out emails and letters to member’s homes asking for pledges," she said. "I am proud to be part of this year’s campaign, working together to accomplish more than we can individually. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, and when people are healthy.”

We are trying something new during our United Way campaign this year. In addition to raising money to support the campaign, our nearly 1,400 Minnesota CenterPoint Energy employees are participating in speed-volunteer activities. 

Our goal is to package 12,000 laundry pods into 6,000 small packets of laundry detergent—enough for two loads. We learned that food stamps do not cover the cost of laundry detergent, so many people go without. The 6,000 packets will be distributed to United Way agencies that support low-income families visiting the food shelf or families living in transitional housing by the end of the campaign. 

Together, we’ll help improve hundreds of thousands of lives each year. That’s the Power of We. It’s not too late to join us to make a difference in our community. Donate now.