United Way of Green Bay Goes Away

[jmcquillan]

I got wind of this story this morning by way of another discussion group. Just another broadside against the BSA by our good friends over at United Way. I begin to wonder how they can still call themselves "United"...

 

United Way chapter

cuts funding to Boy Scouts

 

By The Associated Press

Wednesday August 15, 2001; 11:00 AM

CHARLES TOWN -- Starting next fiscal year, the Boy Scouts of America will get money from the United Way of Jefferson County only when donors specify that's where they want their contributions to go.

 

Calling the Boy Scouts' policy of barring homosexual members discriminatory, the United Way voted 10-1 Monday to cut off funding to the regional Shenandoah Council after this year's $1,800 gift.

 

The United Way will give 19 local Scout troops a total $3,600 this fiscal year, but they, too, will be cut off next year, board President Jane Peters said. The only contributions that will continue are those designated for the Scouts by individual donors.

 

"We still don't approve of the policy, but we do believe in the programs,'' Peters said.

 

In the past, the United Way of Jefferson County has given the Shenandoah Council about $10,000 a year. The decision to cut that funding followed a four- hour meeting closed to reporters.

 

Bob Ferrell, an executive with the Shenandoah Council in Winchester, Va., said Tuesday he is disturbed that during its fund-raising campaign last fall, the United Way touted the Boy Scouts as a group that would benefit.

 

"They used the scouting name to raise the money, and now they're not going to give the Scouts the funding,'' he said. "If they had done this up front, we would have been concerned, but Scouting and the volunteers could have made other arrangements.''

 

The Shenandoah Council represents about 7,000 children in three West Virginia counties.