‘We can’t afford to say no any longer,’ United Way president tells Wichita donors

The United Way wants more Christopher Burrells.

Burrell overcame a rough start to life to become an 18-year-old freshman mechanical engineering student at Kansas State. He’s earned more than $100,000 in scholarships. In high school, he was a four-year student-athlete at Wichita East.

After he finishes college, he wants to buy his mother the house she’s always wanted, have five kids, help Wichita grow, and give back to the people and programs that helped him get where he is today.

The secret to his success, he said, was the help he got from his “second home” — the Boys and Girls Club of South-central Kansas. The Boys and Girls Club is one of 82 programs and initiatives which gets support from donations to the United Way.

“The club pushed me to step outside the box, to try new things, to re-invent myself, to be a Chris that I never thought I could be before,” Burrell said.

“Just love your Boys and Girls Club, and it will always love you right back, I promise,” Burrell told hundreds of potential donors Thursday at the United Way of the Plains fund-raising kickoff breakfast.

Patrick Hanrahan, President and CEO of the United Way of the Plains, said he remembers a 1989 meeting he attended where it was decided to start funding Boys and Girls Club programs in Wichita.

“I can’t help, Chris, but hear your story and think: ‘What if we had said no? What if that agency wasn’t here today?’” Hanrahan said.

The United Way set its funding goal at $13 million this year, so it can fund programs at local nonprofits like the Boys and Girls Club, Hanrahan said. Funded programs fall into three areas: education, income and health, and Hanrahan encouraged everyone at the breakfast to spread the word.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the last few years, unfortunately, we’ve had to say no too many times. We’ve had to turn down some great programs and we’ve had to cut agencies.

“We just can’t afford to say no any longer,” Hanrahan said. “We have got to say yes again, because people depend on what we do.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2018 at 10:16 AM.