FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 4, 1998
Contact: Bill Adams
Telephone: 202-366-5580
DOT 39-98
COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN
REACHES RECORD $38 MILLION
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater, chairman of the 1997 National Capital Area Combined Federal Campaign, today announced that the annual fund drive reached a record $38 million.
"I’m grateful to the thousands of federal employees who were more generous than ever this year," Secretary Slater said. "The spirit of community, of neighbor helping neighbor, is strong and vibrant in the federal government."
A greater percentage of Washington area federal employees, 51.5 percent, contributed to the campaign in 1997 than in 1996, during which 50.8 percent contributed. The 1997 campaign set a record for the amount collected even through there were 20,000 fewer federal employees. During the 1996 campaign, employees in the national capital area raised $37.2 million.
Contributions also were up 6 percent in 1997. They averaged $210 from the 180,420 employees who contributed; the 1996 average contribution was $198.
During the campaign, Secretary Slater announced that there will be a national day of volunteerism for federal employees as a way to provide them an opportunity to make their communities better. Volunteer Day is planned for this spring on a date to be determined.
As an involved leader of the 1997 campaign, Secretary Slater visited six needy agencies in the national capital area. They were the Anacostia Watershed Society, where he planted a dogwood tree by the Anacostia River tree as part of efforts to clean and revitalize the Anacostia River; Downtown Cluster’s Geriatric Day Care Center, where he joined senior adults in recreation, movement therapy and art; Capital Area Community Food Bank, which is a sorting and distribution center for more than 500 shelters, emergency bag programs, soup kitchens and other providers of help to those in need; Davis Memorial Goodwill Industries, where a warehouse fire had generated increased donations from the community; Good Shepherd Ministries, Inc., which provides educational programs for at-risk, low-income minority children in Adams-Morgan; and Grandma’s House for infants, children and senior citizens.
###