Letter from Keith Patrick, Frenship ISD Director of Strategic Initiatives and Lubbock Area United Way Loaned Executives Chair:

Frenship Staff,

When I came to each of you before school year began, I asked you the help raise Frenship’s number of participants. The power of United Way and its annual campaign lies in the name. If we are united in giving something to this campaign our collective impact can be bigger than we realize. You have answered my call!

The Lubbock Area United Way has worked for more than 75 years to fund programs and organizations in our community that make a difference providing vital services to our friends, neighbors, families, and to many of us. Their 23 local partner agencies form the backbone of a network of helping hands that provided more than 120,000 services to citizens of the South Plains over the last year.

Children have a safe place to spend time over the summers and after school thanks to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Lubbock. Families have a helping hand in their time of greatest crisis thanks to the American Red Cross. Students across the region receive vital support and services in our schools because of the work of Communities in Schools. The elderly receive emergency assistance for a variety of needs from Catholic Charities.

These are but a small fraction of the incredible work carried out each day by United Way partner agencies across Lubbock and the South Plains, and their work continues because of your incredible support. As much as you all deserve the ongoing thanks of our community for your tireless dedication to the education, support, and safety of the students of Frenship ISD, those working for these agencies and United Way also deserve our ongoing admiration for their lifelong commitment to serving our community.

I’m writing here to say THANK YOU for your commitment this year to Lubbock Area United Way and the folks they support. I asked you to join in and participate if you haven’t before, and many of you did! I didn’t ask you to raise your contribution level, but you did that anyway too. Our average gift rose from $140 per giver in 2021 to $153 this year!

Those two areas of growth helped us make it a record year for Frenship ISD in the annual campaign with a total of $67,407.41 pledged to the annual campaign. That’s an increase of almost $10,000 over 2021!

Thank you Frenship! Thank you for your heart of service and of giving to our community and thank you for reminding me and the South Plains what a special place Frenship is. You are shining the light of the Frenship Way every day, and this is just another example of what that can look like and how bright our light can really.

Thank you!

Keith Patrick