SEFA Campaign Donations Aid 70 Organizations and Agencies

03/12/2019 

SUNY Cortland employees contributed $43,059 to the 2019 State Employees Federated Appeal (SEFA) campaign, an 8.2 percent increase over the previous year.  

According to the 2019 SEFA Campaign co-chairs, Pam Schroeder and Heather Drew, community was on the mind of contributors with the top local designations going to United Way for Cortland County, SUNY Cortland Child Care Center, YWCA, Lime Hollow Nature Center, American Red Cross, Catholic Charities and the Cortland Child Development Program.

Donations were also made to an additional 63 organizations and agencies, to meet ever-increasing human needs such as hunger, illiteracy, cancer and medical research, animal welfare and disaster relief.

The only authorized fundraising campaign among New York state workers, SEFA is directed by the United Way of Cortland County and brings together fundraising efforts for a broad group of agencies under one common umbrella. This annual fundraising effort offers SUNY Cortland employees the opportunity to support local, statewide and global charities.

The College, which relies on state employee volunteers to canvas co-workers for donations, kicked off the two-week appeal Oct. 17. Results were tallied recently.

“Campaign donations were back up this year, with contributions coming from 262 SUNY Cortland employees,” said Drew, who has co-chaired the campaign with Schroeder for three years.

In New York, SEFA campaigns also are conducted at the State Department of Labor, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Transportation, the Office of Court Administration and the State Police. Decisions are made locally about which agencies are included and how funds are distributed. The community-based SEFA committee is composed of representatives from state agencies and managers of human service agencies. Pledging takes place once a year.

Donors may choose to have their gifts shared among different organizations within Cortland County, used in another county of their choice or designated for individual local, state, independent or international organizations.

Schroeder and Drew said they were glad to reach out to the campus community to help make the campaign successful.

“We are always grateful for the campus volunteers who help distribute and gather pledge forms,” Drew said. “Their assistance is greatly appreciated and we couldn’t do it without them.”

Participants were entered into a drawing for prizes. Winners are as follows:

Betsy Barylski, Faculty Development Center — a personal parking space on campus

James Miller, History Department, Jennifer Petrie, Health Department, and Sharon Consler, The Help Center — $25 ASC Gift Cards

Diane Eccleston, Custodial Services, was the CSEA winner — a $50 Downtown Partnership Gift Certificate

Local members of the Cortland County SEFA Committee and the employee group represented include: Kathleen Burke, SUNY Cortland United University Professions (UUP) employees; Christella Yonta, federated campaign coordinator for the United Way for Cortland County; Gary Evans, SUNY Cortland management/confidential employees and Cortland County SEFA chair; Lori Porter, SUNY Cortland management/confidential employees; Laurie Klotz, SUNY Cortland UUP employees; Lois Marshall, NYSDOT, CSEA employees; and Donna Raymond, NYSEC, CSEA employees.

For more information about SEFA in New York State, visit the website http://www.sefanys.org.