It certainly wasn’t easy for the United Fund of Warren County’s Torchlight Campaign to meet its $735,000 goal.

The cost of living and doing business has gone up over the past year. As a county we deal with high poverty and a crippling loss of population that has led to some difficult choices over the past year for local governments and the agencies that work in our county to help people through tough times.

Yet, once again, Warren County came through with the successful completion of the United Fund of Warren County’s 101st annual campaign. All of the $735,000 raised from individuals, businesses, and foundations supports the United Fund’s 20 partner agencies: a Safe Place, which helps domestic violence/sexual assault victims; Experience Inc., the area’s Agency on Aging; the Red Cross, the Barber National Institute: Bollinger Campus that helps adults with intellectual disabilities; the Boy and Girl scouts; Caring for Life, a non-profit organization that helps families who have ac hild diagnosed with a chronic or serious illness; Family Services of Warren County; the Don Mills Achievement Center, which provides services to disabled residents of the community; the Jefferson DeFrees Family Center; New Hope Assistance Dogs; Hospice of Warren County, the Salvation ARmy, the Ruth M. Smith Center, the USO, county 4-H programs, the Women’s Care Center, the YMCA and the Warren County Children’s Advocacy Center. Those agencies touch thousands of lives in Warren County residents’ lives each year. There’s a lot of incredible work taking place in our county’s nonprofit organizations each year. The community has, for a 101st year, done its own incredible work by making sure that 20 agencies that many people in Warren County count on will be able to serve the public for another year.