By Chéye Roberson
Sentinel Correspondent
The Greenwich United Way held a reception on March 31 to welcome its new president and CEO, David Rabin, amid the colorful floral arrangements at McArdle’s Florist and Garden Center to signify renewal and rejuvenation.
Greenwich United Way’s top supporters were in attendance, including town and state officials such as Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei, Selectman John Toner, and state Reps. Livvy Floren and Fred Camillo. All had warm things to say about Rabin.
“David is very inspiring and hard working,” said Tesei. “He has a very poignant and personal perspective on understanding the needs of people in need and he has the capacity to harness all the resources available in this town to provide solutions to the problems identified by the Greenwich United Way. I certainly wish him well.”
“David is the right guy for the job—he’s hard working and the organization needs a recognizable face to encourage people to help,” said Camillo.
The Greenwich United Way Community Planning Council conducts periodic assessments of the human service needs of the Greenwich community. The information is gathered by collecting documentation, statistics, and perspectives from several individuals and organizations in town.
“They do an awful lot of the assessments of the needs of the town. In Greenwich, some can forget there are lot of people in need and that relates to all parts of town—it can go under the radar,” said Camillo.
Peter Tesei described how significant the Greenwich United Way is and how they are able to help people in ways that government cannot.
“The Greenwich United Way is critically important to the overall health of the Greenwich community, because they go through the process of assessing the needs of the community and initiating fundraising programs to help identify those needs,” he said. “They are able to do that in a more efficient way than government can because of its methods and the way it has to be done. Government can’t do everything.”
Rabin began working with Greenwich United Way in February, after the board of directors unanimously voted him in as the new president and CEO. Previously, Rabin was vice president and founding branch manager at Webster Bank of Greenwich where he turned the branch into the top performer in the country during its first year. Rabin has volunteered with the Byram Archibald Neighborhood Center, the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, At Home in Greenwich, the Greenwich September 11th Memorial, the Greenwich Youth Football League, and the RTM.
In his speech, Rabin announced revisions to the organization’s website and explained his plans to grow fundraising and awareness for Greenwich United Way programs and agencies created in response to the needs assessment.
“Our new branding, logo and website will launch in a couple of weeks with our powerful new tagline: ‘Local Insights. Lasting Results,’” said Rabin.
Rabin said that despite the changes at the organization, the mission of the Greenwich United Way is unchanged—to help the less fortunate families of Greenwich live healthier, better lives.
“Although we’re rebranding and we have a new website, logo, and tagline, the mission is going to remain the same as it has for the last 80 years. We find, fund, and fix the human services needs in the town of Greenwich,” said David Rabin.
The new approach to promoting the Greenwich United Way is a part of a larger effort to spread the word about how the organization provides for the community.
“The needs of this town are not as evident to some; however, to raise awareness that Greenwich United Way is the safety net of our town is one of the biggest challenges moving forward,” said Rabin. “We would like the town of Greenwich to unite behind the Greenwich United Way.”
