Together, with 800 corporate partners, 3,400 volunteers, and more than 20,000 donors, United Way of Southeast Louisiana is fighting for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in every community. The Face of Change series highlights individuals within this mosaic of impact, their unique contributions to our community, and motivations for supporting United Way. This month, meet Bea Forlano, Group Rental Manager at Enterprise Holdings and an all-in United Way donor and volunteer!
Face of Change - Bea Forlano
1. What is your role with United Way? What do you do in this role? I am a founding member of Young Leaders United and currently serve on the steering committee. I am also a member of the Tocqueville Society and Campaign Cabinet. I have been involved with Young Leaders United since the start and it has been a ton of fun, I have helped to recruit members and plan networking and volunteer events. It is a group for young professionals to begin to engage with the community, each other, and United Way.
2. How long have you been involved with United Way?
15 years. The company I work for, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, runs a United Way campaign and is a United Way partner. One of our Founding Values is we strengthen our communities, one neighborhood at a time. We employ a lot of young professionals, so it is a great way to get my employees involved in the community and to live our Founding Values. A fun fact is that when I was a senior at Loyola University, I planned a Dance-A-Thon called Go Bananas; the prize was a vacation and the winners danced for 20 hours straight, and the proceeds from the event went to United Way.
3. What motivates you to give/advocate/or volunteer?
In the world and in our city, the landscape can be challenging and inequitable. To me, how we respond to that breaks down into two teams. One team talks about those challenges and how things could and should be better, and the other team gets busy and takes action however they can - sometimes in big ways and sometimes in small ways.
I think we all get to pick which team we want to be on. I love that the mission of our United Way is eradicating poverty. That is a tall mountain to climb, and I don’t know that we will get there in my lifetime, but I just know I want to be on the team that works for and invests in others.
4. What is one thing about United Way that you think people should know?
The ALICE data and message. I had no idea what that meant before getting involved with United Way over the last few years. When I first heard one of the United Way staff talking about ALICE I thought hmmm, that’s someone I haven’t met yet.
What I learned was that we all know ALICE. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. That means people who are working but not making enough to cover basic living costs and are just barely and (in my opinion, always) creatively and resourcefully just barely getting by and making it all work.
We work with ALICE, we have family members and neighbors who are ALICE, and many of us at one point or another have been ALICE. The fact that 30% of our community is one unexpected or unforeseen incident away from falling into poverty was an alarming data point to learn.
5. What’s your favorite karaoke song?
Do Whatcha Wanna by Rebirth
6. What’s the #1 thing on your bucket list?
To join Retire United at a very young age and do all of the things on my bucket list!