Sanding, painting and clearing debris in a former milk barn were among the tasks on Jennifer Jones’ to-do list Friday.
“We would not even be able to use the facility for probably a couple of years without the volunteers coming to help,” said Jones, director of Apparo Academy, a faith-based non-profit which providing therapeutic education for preschool children.
As part of the United Way of the CSRA’s Project Serve, volunteers worked to transform that former barn into a conference room.
“We don’t have anywhere I can get all my staff together,” said Jones, who added that every available inch of the Skinner Mill Road facility is currently being used for teaching or therapy services. The academy recently closed on more than five acres across the street where the milk barn is located and has big plans for the site including building a 12,000 square-foot therapy center.
Nearly 400 volunteers wore their work clothes to the United Way of the CSRA’s annual campaign kickoff breakfast Friday at First Baptist Church of Augusta and headed to various sites including Girl Scout Camp Tanglewood, YMCA Camp Lakeside, Golden Harvest Food Bank and the Salvation Army Kroc Center to work on a variety of projects.
At the breakfast, United Way officials highlighted progress on the goal put forth at last year’s campaign kickoff.
“If you were here in this room last year, on this very stage, you may remember that we set a big goal to impact 30,000 households by the year 2030,” said Brittany Burnett, United Way of the CSRA president and CEO.
And the organization is well on the way, having impacted 5,687 families designated as ALICE or asset-limited, income constrained, employed, since last year.
“These are families who are hardworking. They’re making more than the federal poverty level, but they’re not making enough to make ends meet,” said Burnett of ALICE families.
About 45% of people living in the 12 Georgia and South Carolina counties the United Way serves fall into that ALICE designation.
The United Way has helped ease the burden with initiatives such as Stuff the Bus in which school supply donations are given to school districts. This year’s Stuff the Bus filled five school buses with 47,000 supplies.
Programs such as Project Dash help people who are homebound or have limited transportation receive food from the food bank; Volunteer Income Tax Assistance utilizes IRS-trained volunteers to eliminate cost of income tax preparation; and Ride United is a partnership with Lyft that helps people get to medical appointments and other essential destinations.
Also, at Friday’s kickoff event, the campaign video highlighted the United Way’s 211 staff who field phone calls from across the area to connect people to needed services.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here
