For a few more days, you can benefit a Lancaster County charity with a vehicle purchase.
Through Jan. 4, 2021, as part of Subaru's annual Share the Love event, Lancaster County Motors Subaru will donate $250 to one of two designated organizations for every new vehicle purchased or leased.
This year's recipients are the United Way of Lancaster County and A Week Away Foundation. (The United Way sponsors One United Lancaster.)
Customers can also choose to designate one of these national charities: Make a Wish Foundation, Meals on Wheels America, the National Parks Foundation, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The United Way of Lancaster County plans to use funds donated through Share the Love to implement Project Blueprint, a program that prepares emerging and current leaders of color to hold leadership roles on nonprofit and public sector boards and committees.
“As we talk about racial justice, we need to understand that while it’s important to do anti-racism trainings, we also need to invest in communities of color and those individuals, so they are able to be in places of power and influence,” said Kevin Ressler, President and CEO of the United Way of Lancaster County.
Non-white communities are disproportionately served by the work of nonprofits, yet only 16% of U.S. nonprofit board members are white, and 27% of boards do not have a single person of color, according to the study “Leading with Intent: 2017 National Index of Nonprofit Board Practices.”
When life experiences and perspectives are limited on a board, solutions end up limited as well, Ressler said. United Way of Lancaster County is hoping to fix that with Project Blueprint, inspired by the work of different Untied Ways across the country.
A Week Away is a Lancaster nonprofit that arranges and funds respite weeks for individuals and their loved ones who are dealing with a life-threatening illness, giving them renewed energy and hope to keep fighting their disease.
Meals on Wheels of Lancaster was one of last year's Share the Love partners. The organization put some of the donations it received toward a new combination oven. It also bought and distributed 1,500 insulated bags to guarantee meal deliveries are contactless, safe and stay warm, and distributed nearly 1,000 food boxes to new clients.
“The people we serve are some of the most vulnerable to the (Covid-19) virus,” said Hayley Wright, coordinator of client and volunteer relations at Meals on Wheels of Lancaster.
They include seniors, people with compromised immune systems, other physical conditions and mental health problems.
Over the past 12 years, Subaru of America Inc. and its participating retailers have donated more than $176 million to charity through the Share the Love Event, with customers choosing between four national and over 1,440 hometown charities. For 2020-21, the 13th year, Share the Love is on track to bring the total to over $200 million.
