ST. LOUIS — Madeleine Cole’s annual tradition of volunteering brought her downtown once a week to the offices of the United Way of Greater St. Louis.
There, she helped match donors with some of the region’s neediest families as part of the 100 Neediest Cases campaign, an annual program from the United Way of Greater St. Louis in partnership with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Cole’s decade-old routine was upended last year. Volunteers like her, many of them retired, and regulars with the program for years had to quickly learn to telework.
“It was a little bit different,” she said. “Some of us were a little more computer literate.”
The campaign in 2020, like so many businesses and organizations, was forced to quickly pivot as the coronavirus emptied offices and turned Zoom into a verb. Longtime volunteers for the 100 Neediest Cases, used to helping out the campaign in person, learned to work remotely.
“We saw volunteers who are 65, 70, 75 years old learn how to do (Microsoft) Teams,” said Becky White, who manages the 100 Neediest Cases campaign for the United Way. “It changed a lot of our processes, but it also changed a lot of things for the better.”
Though gatherings were canceled and seasons’ greetings went virtual as the pandemic disrupted countless holiday traditions for families across the world, one tradition St. Louis area families and businesses didn’t let the coronavirus sideline was the 100 Neediest Cases campaign.
The campaign that aims to lend a hand to those in need during the holidays drew record support. Donors contributed over $1.7 million last year and the campaign, now in its 99th year, still managed to pair up nearly 1,000 individuals and families with donors.
“We just saw the St. Louis community — as they always do — we saw them answer the call,” White said. “Traditions stand no matter what is happening.”
Ana Viera saw that firsthand last year, as more of her co-workers at Bayer Crop Science joined the effort to contribute to families featured in the 100 Neediest Cases campaign.
Unidos, an internal group for Bayer employees of Latin American descent that Viera is a member of, had always adopted two or three families for the campaign, dividing up shopping lists and capping the effort by gathering for a gift-wrapping party.
Even without those traditions, more volunteers stepped up last year, ordering the gifts online. She had to add more donation items to keep up with the number of participating employees. Viera recruited family members to help wrap the presents.
Viera, an agronomist who works with vegetable seeds, moved to St. Louis from Peru about six years ago. She had been involved with charitable giving in her hometown, and she wanted to make sure she became involved in her adopted city. The pain caused by the pandemic made it all the more important for her and her co-workers. This year, the Bayer Unidos group is adopting an extra family beyond the usual three, she said.
“I think we were all aware that it was a year when we really needed to step up our game and do more for our community,” she said. “Last year it was clear we had to do something bigger.”
Starting Sunday, and over the next four weeks, the Post-Dispatch and stltoday.com will highlight some of the area’s families and individuals who need help. But the 100 cases presented are just a fraction of the total who benefit from the program each year.
Thanks to the generosity of individuals, corporations and other groups, the campaign provides thousands of area residents with cash assistance plus toys, clothes, groceries and other household needs. The 2021 holiday campaign runs through January. But the United Way accepts donations for the program year-round.
This year, 53 participating social service agencies, school districts and other groups that provide aid have sent the United Way a combined 4,200 cases of those in the St. Louis region who could use a hand from their neighbors. That’s slightly more than last year, suggesting that hardships have not subsided as COVID-19 numbers have fallen and the economy has rebounded.
“Problems are more complex now that we’re another year into the pandemic,” White said.
Some people might have returned to work, but child care issues remain. Others have lost caregivers to the pandemic.
About 1,100 of those people or families are eligible to be “adopted” by 100 Neediest Cases donors. Those who are not adopted get a check from the proceeds of the campaign.
People who want to participate may do so without adopting a family, simply by making a monetary contribution. Even small donations can add up.
As part of their coursework, social work students at the University of Missouri-St. Louis review the cases in order to help put a dollar figure on the assistance that families and individuals need. At the end of the campaign, each family receives a check to cover some of those needs.
“We’ve had families cry because they can’t believe the amount,” said Audrea Swims, Family Partnership administrator at the YWCA Metro St. Louis, a longtime partner agency with the United Way in the 100 Neediest Cases campaign. “Sometimes just to actually see it in the end is a shock to them.”
After last year, program managers are a little more comfortable navigating the new world left by the pandemic — and confident that the 100 Neediest Cases is on solid administrative and financial footing.
Donors from around the region and volunteers at partner agencies who help make the 100 Neediest Cases campaign possible are again stepping up to help brighten the season for some of the region’s residents. And this time, the effort has proven it can navigate the new normal.
“That flexibility and that can-do attitude — everyone recognized nothing was the same as it used to be,” White said. “Except the generosity of the St. Louis community.”