This week I had the chance to visit several of the agencies and organizations the United Way of Selma and Dallas County helps support.

For those who might not know, the United Way works with 15 different nonprofits that do all kinds of good work in the community.

On Tuesday, I visited the Central Alabama Area Food Bank, the Salvation Army and the West Central Alabama Rehabilitation Center with local United Way executive director Jeff Cothran. Those three agencies offer a good representation of the work United Way-supported groups are doing in the community.

At the food bank, volunteers from several different groups were hard at work bagging food that will go to those in need in Dallas and several surrounding counties. Many of the people the food bank helps are elderly and shut-in.

Over at the Salvation Army, staff members and volunteers were getting ready to launch this year’s Angel Tree drive that helps provide presents to children who might otherwise go without Christmas morning. The Salvation Army is also getting ready to start ringing bells for its annual Red Kettle Drive, which also helps those locally in need.

The final stop was West Central Alabama Rehabilitation Center, which along with the Easter Seals of West Central Alabama, offers a program for children with significiant physical and developmental disabilities.

The morning was an eye-opening one, seeing how some of these organizations are able to do so much and touch so many lives with a limited amount of resources. The staff at each location was small but dedicated and passionate about their causes.

The United Way also supports many other agencies that do equally important work. These, the American Red Cross, the Boy Scouts of America, the Cahaba Center for Mental Health, the Bosco Nutrition Center, the Selma and Dallas County Public Library, the YMCA of Selma and Dallas County and several others. The United Way is in the middle of its annual campaign, which last year put more than $220,000 back into the community.

There are several ways people can contribute to this life-impacting work, which couldn’t happen without the generosity of local people and businesses. Many businesses are kind enough to allow employee payroll deductions for the United Way. International Paper Riverdale Mill and its employees are the United Way’s biggest annual donor.

Alabama Power Company also deserves special recognition for their support. Local warehouse employees were challenged to give and answered the call, raising more than $5,000 and having 100 percent participation within just a couple of weeks. They celebrated the achievement with a cookout last week.

Anyone with questions about giving should contact United Way executive director Jeff Cothran at (334) 874-8383 or jeffcothran@selmaunitedway.org.