EVANSTON — Evanston Chamber of Commerce Director Tammy Halliday opened the monthly luncheon meeting on Thursday, Oct. 10, by thanking Diamond Sponsors and welcoming new businesses Frontier Kitchen and Bath, Jackalope Delivery and Border Beverage. 

Ashley Valentine of Timeless Beauty received the Business of the Month award from Halliday. Valentine said her business provides permanent make-up and tanning, and sells cosmetics. She is located at 108 10th St. and is a native of Evanston. She thanked the Chamber for the honor of receiving the award and encouraged everyone to visit her salon.

Special presentation for the day was given by Kelly Frink, executive director of United Way of Southwest Wyoming. She began by introducing Shelley Richno, community impact coordinator, who attended with her.

“As you might know, United Way is primarily known for its workplace donations where employees can pledge a payroll deduction throughout the year. The employee can designate where the donation goes and we keep track of that separately for each county. In Uinta County we provide funds for five programs for education, including Lincoln Uinta Child Development Agency (LUCDA) … [Evanston Youth Club], Uinta Self-Reliance, Youth Alternative Home Association (YAHA) and Special Help Self-Reliance. 

“We also provide funding for shipping for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library where children receive a free book every month. Any child can register for it. The cost for this service is just $3 a month per child. We have 711 kids enrolled in Uinta County. Just for your information, for every dollar you spend on education, there is a $9-12 return on the investment,” Frink said.

Frink then asked Richno to explain the Diaper Bank program with United Way.  

Richno said that the Diaper Bank project is totally volunteer run and they gather diapers for low-income families. They will even repackage unused diapers that have been opened. They have drop-off places in businesses in Lyman, Evanston and at BOCES. Richno said they gave away 10,000 diapers last year. 

“When we decided to do this project, we asked for volunteers and two people stepped up — D’Andrea Chichester and Linda Cummings. They completely run the program. They coordinate pick-up and delivery and work with the businesses and agencies that have agreed to place the drop-off boxes at their location. Nationally, the last week in September, we just finished Diaper On Awareness Week. The national organization then announced they were going to give an award to the best volunteer for the program and our two volunteers were nominated and both won,” Richno said.

Richno then asked Chichester to come forward and receive the National Volunteer Diaper On Award for her outstanding service in Southwest Wyoming. United Way Board member and Diaper On volunteer Linda Cummings, who was not present at the luncheon, was also honored with the award. Chichester and Cummings were chosen out of volunteers from 108 diaper banks in the nation.

Frink then told those present about another program that United Way sponsors called Family Wize, which is a discount prescription drug program. The program works together with most pharmacies to help people with little or no insurance pay for expensive prescription drugs. 

“Seventeen percent of Wyoming residents have no insurance and we have helped over 24,000 people by saving them over $3 million dollars in drug costs. People can register for the help on FamilyWize.org,” Frink said.

Frink reminded people how easy it is to do a payroll deduction and said that even 5 cents per hour would add up to $104 in a year. She said that can make a big difference for the agencies receiving funding from United Way, such as YAHA. Frink asked Karen Fry of YAHA to say a few words.

“YAHA has been operating since 1986 serving youth and families. We have two facilities; the crisis shelter where law enforcement can give kids or parents a time out, and the housing facility where youth can live. They come to us in two ways — court ordered from Sweetwater and Uinta counties or through parent enforcement placement for up to 60 days. There is a misconception that the youth who are sent to us are bad kids. That is not the case; most are great kids. Most of the kids just have a family issue. At both places we teach them life skills and that choices have consequences. Two weeks ago, 100 percent of our employees signed up for payroll deduction to United Way. YAHA could not exist without the help of United Way and they hold us accountable,” Fry said and added, “The star of this meeting today, D’Andrea, was one of our kids at YAHA and is now coming back to work for us. We are excited to have her.” 

Frink then showed a computer-generated video of testimonies from a few recipient agencies regarding how United Way helps them.

To close out the meeting, Halliday announced the November Chamber luncheon will be held at the Education Service Center and the presenter will be Uinta County School District No. 1, with food provided by the central kitchen and catered by Horizon High School’s culinary art students. The December presentation would be from the Community Foundation. 

She also reminded people of the Chamber’s New Year’s Eve Gala fundraiser and that they needed to get their tickets soon. Halliday asked if anyone in the audience had any announcements. 

Jessica Kendrick announced that the Evanston Regional Hospital now had flu shots available and the Saturday clinic was now open. She also introduced the new family medicine physician, Richard Capener, DO, DC. 

Wanda Rogers of Disability IN reminded the audience of their 21st annual awards celebration on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Machine Shop. The speaker is George Dennehy, who is known all over the world. He was born without arms but sings and plays music using his feet. He has been featured on CBS News.com and has a CD of his original music.