Community Center Comeback

continued

"It has been an amazing journey to watch the agency recover and transform itself," emails Sandy Rupp. With the center "once again proving its value to the community," Rupp says, United Way resumed its funding last year, though at a much lower level--just $12,000. This year, it rose to $17,000--just as Michigan was hit with the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Whiten predicts that the needs of working families will only increase in the months ahead--and she hopes they'll continue to turn to the Ann Arbor Community Center for help. Whatever their background, she stresses, "I really want people to know it's everybody's center."   

[Originally published in November, 2009.]