For United Way Capital Area’s annual Workplace Giving Campaigns, two dedicated volunteers help promote the importance of giving through the workplace by serving as Campaign Co-Chairs. This year’s Co-Chairs are Ben Bentzin, CEO of Interactive Health Technologies, Inc., and Jeff Thomas, Regional Vice President for H-E-B. They answered some questions about their role in the campaign in the second of this three-part series.
Why do you give to UWCA?
Jeff: It’s a wonderful organization that touches so many different needs in our community and I have a passion around many of these needs- education for one, especially early education. You can impact the life of a young child even prior to going into school and make a difference in their life forever. Right now, we’re putting a lot of time, energy and money into building literacy rates in the state of Texas and our chairman Charles Butt is very passionate about that, as I am.
I also have a passion around the well-being and health of the people in our community. H-E-B is doing an awful lot to make sure we’re educating our partners about being healthy, taking better care of themselves and many of the organizations that UWCA touches connect to that.
There’s so many different needs in our community that, if not for UWCA, would go unfilled, so that’s why I’m passionate about giving and supporting United Way.
Why do you have a passion for improving the Austin community?
Ben: When I’m out during campaign, I talk about how much I love living in Austin. Everyday that I wake up, I think it’s great to have the chance to live in Austin. And yet we have men, women and children that also live here that don’t enjoy some of these blessings- health insurance, steady income, access to educational opportunities for our pre-school children and elementary school children- that’s not available for everyone in our community. This campaign is really about expanding what’s great about Austin to ensure that everyone enjoys those blessings.
In the final installment, Jeff and Ben will answer questions about Workplace Giving and philanthropy in Austin.