Page 8 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Friday, June 29, 2012
Annual Lakes Region United way fund drive topped $1-million mark for first time; organization considering merging with giant Granite United Way By RogeR Amsden MEREDITH — More than 200 people gathered at the Inn at Church Landing Thursday evening to help the organization celebrate a record fundraising year which saw the organization raise over $1.2-million for support of its community programs and partnerships. Mark Primeau, president and CEO of the Bank of New Hampshire and chairman of the board of directors, said that the $1.2-million invested in education and healthy communities represents a 48-percent increase over previous years. ‘’We continue to focus on the sustainability and effectiveness of the social service non-profit network in the Lakes Region, strengthening many through the organization’s Financial Stability Partnership and working to increase levels of cooperation and collaboration.’’ said Primeau. He said the organization remains committed to work on growth in Grafton and Carroll Counties and is focusing on the Whole Village in Plymouth as an asset with a great upside potential for making a real difference in people’s lives. Primeau also said that discussions will continue with Granite United Way on the possible benefits of a merger. ‘’We will undertake such a merger only if it is beneficial to those we already serve,’’ said Primeau, who said that a discussion with all stakeholders will be held this summer. On July 1, 2010, the former United Ways known as Heritage United Way, United Way of Merrimack County, Upper Valley United Way and the North Country United Way officially merged to form Granite United Way. On February 1, of this year the United Way of Northern New Hampshire joined Granite United Way and the organization now serves over half a million residents in NH and Vermont and covers nearly 75-percent of
the state’s geographic territory. LRUW President Jack Terrill, said that the Lakes Region United Way was losing someone who is irreplaceable with the pending retirement of Judi Taggart, campaign director, and praised her for all of the work she has done over the years for the organization. ‘’You can be very proud of all you’ve done for the Lakes Region,’’ Terrill told her, as he presented her with roses after sheepishly admitting that he had forgotten to buy them himself and had to borrow some from those being presented by the United Way campaign team leaders. Prior to her acceptance of the flowers an impromptu “flash mob” dance routine was performed by young dancers from Broadway North, livening up the entire event, causing Primeau to comment that not only had Taggart overruled her boss by having entertainment on the schedule, but that she had also had overruled the board of directors. Sandy Clary of Cru-Con of Center Harbor was singled out for praise for her firm’s donation of five cruise trips as an incentive for fundraisers. Terrill estimated that those cruises brought in an additional $150,000 in revenue. Winners of major annual awards were announced at the meeting. The Sara Allen Award, an honor given to an agency or initiative that takes important steps to either ensure their services are sustainable or enhance the effectiveness of those services, was awarded to Health First Family Care Center and accepted by Rick Silverberg, executive director. The agency was honored for its efficient welcoming of 800 new Medicaid patients in the last several months. Other nominees were Better Together, Childhood Readiness & Success Team-Carroll County, Got Lunch! Laconia and Pemi-Baker Community Health. The Nighswander-Chertok Award, which acknowledges an organization for
ROBERTS from page one mandate as a valid exercise of Congress’ authority to “lay and collect taxes.” The administration estimates that roughly 4 million people will pay the penalty rather than buy insurance. Roberts, appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, opposed by young Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and much-criticized by Democrats in recent years, sided with his court’s liberals on a major case for the second time this week as the justices concluded their 2011-12 term. On Monday, he had voted to invalidate parts of Arizona’s tough crackdown on illegal immigrants. In the health care case, Congress had referred to a penalty, not a tax, on people who don’t obtain insurance. But Roberts said the court would not get hung up on labels. Among other indications it is a tax, Roberts said, “the payment is collected solely by the IRS through the normal means of taxation.” “Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid
it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness,” Roberts said. Many Republicans oppose the law, arguing that it marks a government takeover of health care at the same time it curtails Medicare spending and raises taxes. They also point to studies that predict private employers will be forced to reduce or eliminate coverage and that the legislation will wind up costing far more than estimated, raising federal deficits as a result. Stocks of hospital companies rose and some insurance companies fell after the ruling. The decision should help hospitals by adding millions of people to the rolls of the insured, expanding the pool of health care consumers. But by the same reasoning, insurance companies will also gain millions of premium-paying customers. The court found problems with the law’s expansion of Medicaid, but even there it said the expansion could proceed as long as the federal government does not threaten to withhold states’ entire Medicaid allotment if
FOR THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
Pamela Paquette (left) of Public Service Company of N.H. was presented with the Captain Ralph Bristol Award for her volunteer work on behalf of the Lakes Region United Way at the organization’s annual awards ceremony held at Church Landing in Meredith on Thursday evening. With her is Judi Taggart, United Way Campaign director, who is retiring after years of service to the organization. (Roger Amsden photo for the Laconia Daily Sun)
campaign design excellence and development of a giving culture that utilizes best practices to encourage individual and corporate community investment, was presented to the Laconia Clinic, which recorded an 88-percent increase in giving and was accepted by Vice President Andy Patterson. Other nominees included the Bank of New Hampshire, Belmont Elementary School, Eptam Plastics, Laconia High School, Laconia Housing Authority, Melcher & Prescott Insurance, Meredith Village Savings Bank, Northway Bank, Pike Industries and United Parcel Service.
The Captain Ralph B. Bristol Award for outstanding volunteer of the year was presented to Pam Paquette of Public Service Company of New Hampshire, who for the last 16 years has led the Day of Caring planning efforts. Other nominees for the Bristol Award were Howard Cunningham, Marti Ilg, Susan Nadeau, Mike Persson and Karen Wilson. Paquette said she was ‘’a bit overwhelmed. I didn’t do this to get accolades,’’ and said that the success of the Day of Caring efforts were created ‘’by a great new team.’
they don’t take part. Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor joined Roberts in the outcome. Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. Kennedy summarized the dissent in the courtroom. “In our view, the act before us is invalid in its entirety,” he said. The dissenters said in a joint statement that the law “exceeds federal power both in mandating the purchase of health insurance and in denying non-consenting states all Medicaid funding.” The justices rejected two of the administration’s three arguments in support of the insurance requirement. Roberts agreed with his conservative colleagues that Congress lacks the power under the Constitution’s commerce clause to put the mandate in place. “The federal government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance,” he said in a part of his opinion that the liberal justices
did not join. But his crucial bottom line was: “The federal government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance.” In all, the justices spelled out their views in six opinions totaling 187 pages. Roberts, Kennedy and Ginsburg spent 51 minutes summarizing their views in the courtroom. The legislation passed Congress in early 2010 after a monumental struggle in which all Republicans voted against it. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Thursday the House will vote July 11 on whether to repeal the law, though such efforts have virtually no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the health care law makes it harder for small businesses to hire workers. “Today’s ruling underscores the urgency of repealing this harmful law in its entirety,” he said. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., heaped praise on the court’s decision, and the 2010 law, in see next page