United Way honors campaign contributors

EVERETT — Senior Aerospace Absolute Manufacturing in Arlington almost doubled its contributions last year to the United Way of Snohomish County campaign, tripling the number of employees who donated as well as tripling the size of its corporate gift.

Several employees of the company live in Darrington, which made choosing the company’s Days of Caring project at the Darrington Community Center an easy decision.

That’s why Senior Aerospace Absolute Manufacturing was chosen for the United Way’s President’s Award given on Thursday night. Trina Massingale of the company also won one of the Employee Campaign Manager of the Year awards.

One of the company’s employees, production manager Peter Hilker, made a challenge that caught the attention of the United Way staff, said Dennis G. Smith, president and CEO of United Way of Snohomish County.

“If they raised $900, he promised to shave his head into a Mohawk and if they raised $1,000 he’d dye it pink. They raised $1,013 and you can see what happened,” said Smith pointing to a picture of Hilker with his hair-do.

Also at the event, Premera Blue Cross’ CEO Jeff Roe won the Executive of the Year Award. Roe, who could not attend on Thursday night, replaced Premera’s former CEO Gubby Barlow last year. He joined United Way’s Tocqueville Society for donors who give more than $10,000 and the United Way board of directors.

Premera in Mountlake Terrace set a record for largest workplace campaign in 2013. The company broke that record last year by raising $645,000.

Several hundred people attended the dinner at Comcast Arena’s Edward D. Hansen Conference Center that celebrates the close of United Way’s 2014 Community Caring Campaign.

The Community Caring Campaign is United Way’s single biggest source of revenue each year. The campaign includes contributions from the various United Way campaigns at businesses, nonprofits and individuals, the Combined Federal Campaign and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound.

The money raised for the campaign is given to 107 programs that help people focusing on education, financial stability and healthy communities. More than 13,000 individuals and 300 workplaces contributed to last year’s campaign.

The Labor Partnership Award went to the coalition of groups involved in the Marysville School District campaign. They put their United Way campaign on hold temporarily after the shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School last October but decided that one way to help the community move forward was to come together and finish the campaign.

The Best New Campaign Award went to Umbra Cuscinetti, an Everett aerospace company. They reached 20 percent participation in their first year, matched all employee gifts 100 percent, sponsored the Aerospace Golf Scramble and raised money for United Way’s Disaster Recovery Fund.

The largest single contributions come in the form of grants from the Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound ($1.86 million) and The Boeing Company ($725,000).

Platinum event sponsors included AT&T and The Boeing Company. Premier event sponsors included The Everett Clinic, Jamco America, Inc. and Union Bank. Presenting sponsors included Fluke Corporation, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, Puget Sound Energy and Tulalip Resort Casino. Media and in-kind sponsors included The Daily Herald, Microsoft, GoodSide Studio and Stadium Flowers.

United Way of Snohomish County will be celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2015. Josh O’Connor, the publisher of The Herald and Larry Hanson, publisher emeritus, will co-chair United Way’s 2015 campaign.

Here is a full list of award winners:

President’s Award

Senior Aerospace Absolute Manufacturing

Executive of the Year Award

Jeff Roe of Premera Blue Cross

Employee Campaign Manager of the Year Awards

Debbie Beaman, Kimberly Rashid and Dena Searcy of Comcast

Heidi Burgi and Trista Fure of Community Health Center of Snohomish County

Trina Massingale of Senior Aerospace Absolute Manufacturing

Britta Schwendtke of The Arc of Snohomish County

Diane Broderick from The Bank of Washington

Premier Partner Award