It took most of a lifetime, but Pat Smith finally bought her own house.
A cook at the McPhaul Child and Family Development Center, Smith began working in her sophomore year of high school and hasn’t stopped since. Now a grandmother of four, she bought the home with help from the Athens Land Trust, an agency that benefits from the UGA Campaign for Charities, which runs through Dec. 18.
The campaign, which is part of the State Charitable Contributions Program, allows UGA employees to donate funds to any of more than 1,200 participating organizations. Every employee should receive a contribution form at work. A list of charities is available at https://webapps.ais.uga.edu/PBCC/home.seam.
“After working with Athens Land Trust to get my finances in order and show that I could pay for this house, I moved in March,” Smith said. “I leased for a little while to make sure that I liked the house and that I could afford to pay rent. I set aside some for a down payment, and in August I closed on the home. Now when I say ‘my house,’ it’s my house.”
UGA employee Pat Smith, above right, bought her first house with help from the Athens Land Trust, an agency supported by the UGA Campaign for Charities.
Smith spent most of her life in government-subsidized housing. She lived in Parkview Estates, near Baxter Street in Athens, until her daughter was shot and killed there in May 1999. Then she moved to an elderly neighborhood called Vine Circle, and got serious about buying her own home.
But through it all, Smith gave back.
“I didn’t know that the Athens Land Trust was part of this Campaign for Charities. I had always given to the Boys and Girls Club, a little from my paycheck every month,” she said.
That spirit of giving and return is what UGA President Michael F. Adams said he’d like to see in UGA employees.
“This is a year with still a significant economic downturn, furlough days and no raises. It would be very easy for anyone to rationalize away writing a check. It’s very easy for any of us to feel sorry for the condition that we’re in,” he said. “But I hope you will particularly pay attention this year, in this economic climate, to those agencies that provide food and clothing and basic human needs for our community.”
The goals of this year’s campaign are to increase the percentage of participating employees to 25 percent and to raise $425,000, said Laura Jolly, dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and this year’s campaign chairperson.
The campaign includes charitable organizations from the United Way and March of Dimes to the American Cancer Society and local charities. Donations are drawn directly from employee paychecks on a monthly basis, or may be made by cash or check. Paycheck donations can be made for as little was $1 per month.