Photo Courtesy of United Way of Greater St. Joseph By MATT PIKESt. Joseph PostThe United Way of Greater St. Joseph wraps up its campaign tonight after raising money for the past two months.United Way kicked off this year's fundraising campaign in early September, with the goal of raising at least $2.5 million, just slightly more than last year's total of $2.4 million.United Way campaign chair Tom Richmond says that this year's campaign has gone well."Really St. Joe is a remarkably generous community, and that's been one of our hallmarks and it's one of the things I like about St. Joe," Richmond tells Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. "And this year again, we're having campaigns throughout the city, we've had a lot of good response."Last year will always be remembered by the United Way for two things: the coronavirus pandemic and the flooding on the south side of St. Joseph. The pandemic kept United Way volunteers from raising money face-to-face.Richmond says besides the pandemic, the United Way of Greater St. Joseph also faced the challenges brought on by flooding in St. Joseph's south end."United Way in the midst of that flooding, not as a normal part of our activity, stepped up and acted as the coordinator as people worked to respond, multiple agencies, businesses, individuals, worked to respond to our neighbors, loved our neighbors in the south end," Richmond saysBut, Richmond says the south-end flooding is the type of disaster United Way raises money to address."The ability to respond to these issues that come up is really, really important," Richmond adds.United Way of Greater St. Joseph President Kylee Strough says that while about 70% of the funds raised during the annual campaign go to 17 partner agencies around St. Joseph, the rest of the funds are saved for emergencies, such as the COVID pandemic and the flooding in south St. Joseph last year."Something that is so important, is that a portion of those campaign dollars are set aside for the unexpected," Strough tells Birr. "And what it means for our community is that, we are able to respond in an instant, we don't have to go out and seek financial support before we start to respond, because the community has trusted us with those dollars."An event will be held this evening by the United Way of Greater St. Joseph at The Metropolitan to announce this year's total. The event begins at 5pm. Photo Courtesy of United Way of Greater St. Joseph Photo Courtesy of United Way of Greater St. Joseph