David and Sue Shaffer to Chair 2018 Campaign for United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley

Allentown, PA – Inside David Shaffer’s childhood home, two decorations made a lasting impression. One said, “Nothing is impossible if you don’t have to do it yourself.” The other read, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
 
“Those two sayings have driven and shaped my life,” reflected Shaffer.
 
Over the next 12 months, Shaffer, Chairman of Just Born Quality Confections, and his wife Sue will apply that wisdom to United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley as co-chairs of the 2018-19 campaign.
 
“We look forward to helping the entire community understand our United Way. That’s at the heart of what we’re trying to accomplish this year. United Way has a true mission that gets community agencies to work together toward common goals,” said Sue.
 
UWGLV’s program investments impact the lives of 60,000 people each year and create opportunities to improve the health, education and safety of everyone in our community. Lifelong Lehigh Valley residents and longtime United Way supporters, David and Sue have committed to raising more funds to support children, families and seniors throughout the region.
 
“We are guaranteed to succeed, because standing shoulder to shoulder with us are so many dedicated people in this community. They stepped up to make the 2017 campaign the largest in United Way’s history. Sue and I are going to do everything in our power to convince them to never step down,” said David.
 
UWGLV raised a record-breaking $15,050,500 in its most recent campaign. The Shaffers not only hope to exceed that amount, they aim to increase awareness of United Way’s work in the community. The Shaffers convened a Campaign Cabinet of business leaders focused on workplace giving as well as created a new grassroots Community Cabinet. The newly created group will engage new United Way donors and focus on a broad-based community-wide campaign.
 
“United Way just celebrated its 100^th anniversary. It’s a new century, and we’ve embraced a new way of looking at our community’s most challenging issues. David and Sue have already shown tremendous leadership and dedication toward our next century of serving this community,” said David Lewis, President of UWGLV.
 
UWGLV raises money and invests in programs to achieve three bold goals: increase the number of third-graders reading on grade level, decrease the number of food insecure residents and increase the number of seniors whose basic needs are met at home.