
Photo courtesy of Southern Cirque.
Homewood resident Sottie Collins sits on an aerial sling with Cindy Gilmore, left, and Megan Rhoads during an event with Southern Cirque in June 2022 for the Homewood Senior Center. United Way of Central Alabama recognized the Homewood Senior Center for this event as part of their effort to honor seniors.
For years, United Way of Central Alabama has helped provide free meals to senior citizens and those who are homebound in the city of Homewood and around Jefferson County.
Homewood Senior Center Director Aimee Thornton said the senior center has about 25 people on average who come each day to eat and spend time together. The state of Alabama contracts with United Way to provide meals to everyone age 60 and over in Jefferson County. Those wishing to be fed fill out an enrollment form, Thornton said.
With 20 different menus, the same meal does not repeat for a while, she said. The food is planned by a registered dietician and goes to both in-person guests and those who are at home through the Meals on Wheels program.
Thornton said the organization also shares important resources, including information about being prepared for emergencies, how to register for emergency notifications, obtaining veterans benefits, transportation services and more.
United Way is “really organized” and does a great job in communicating with the senior center and those who benefit from their services, Thornton said.
This summer, the United Way is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
“We are firm believers that when we come together as a whole, the possibilities are endless,” said Drew Langloh, UWCA president and CEO. “Our 100-year impact on the Central Alabama community proves this, and we look forward to continuing to pave the way for real, tangible change for the next 100 years.”
Those future plans start with a celebration of where they’ve been and where they’re headed. On June 24, UWCA supporters, partners and neighbors are invited to CityWalk in Birmingham from 3 to 8 p.m. to enjoy live music, food, performers, games, a partner agency fair and more.
In the coming months, UWCA will also unveil six community park projects, one in each county served by the organization.
In 1923, a group of local business people got together to deal with the social problems in the rapidly growing city of Birmingham.
“When you read the minutes from back then, you begin to understand that the organization was seen as a device or a mechanism,” Langloh said. “Oftentimes, they would come together if there was a big issue brewing in the community that needed attention.”
Calling themselves Birmingham Community Chest at that time, they organized to help fight issues like tuberculosis, a disease that was heavily burdening local medical facilities.
“What I find interesting is that even though the issues today are very different, the dynamic is very similar for the organization,” Langloh said, noting that BCC has gone through several name changes over the years, including United Appeal in 1956 and UWCA in 1992. “Today, we still roll up our sleeves and sit at a common table together and talk about issues facing us today and how we are going to go about solving them. Even though we’re very different than we were in 1923, the reason for our existence is the same.”
Over the past hundred years, UWCA has met a variety of changing needs. It organized relief during the Great Depression. It led the way in race relations with the addition of its first Black board member, Dr. A.G. Gaston, in 1966 and with the establishment of a boys’ club in his name.
UWCA also leveraged nearly $21 million to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Alabama in 2006.
All of this and much more has been done with the vital support of the community, Langloh said. In 1923, Birmingham Community Chest met a fundraising goal of half a million dollars to help its 31 agencies. Now with more than 200 agencies, UWCA is hoping to raise its endowment to $100 million to ensure that kind of assistance keeps going.
“The whole reason for United Way is to serve the community,” said Langloh, who has worked with UWCA for 24 years, 15 of those as CEO. “To me, it all starts with this fundamental belief that this organization is owned by the community, not owned by anyone in particular. Because of that, we’ve been successful in that each generation that comes along has picked it up and stewarded it through their time and then handed it off.”
UWCA has worked over the years to “keep fighting for the health, education and financial stability of every person in our community,” and Langloh said he is “pretty confident and hopeful that the work we’re doing now will help perpetuate that model into the future.”
“The issues will be different, but what I’m really hopeful for as we’re launching this endowment campaign is to make sure it’s still there to bring the community together to work on their problems, whatever they might be,” he said.
For more information about the centennial celebration, visit uwca.org/100years.