Tansill

The United Way of Central Maryland reported yesterday that it raised a record $39 million in its 1991 campaign because donations from government workers more than made up for a shortfall in the private sector blamed on the recession.Donations from the private-sector categories, many from companies hard hit by the recession, fell about $1.8 million below their $33.2 million goal, campaign officials said.The top 50 companies that have in the past raised more than $100,000 each for the United Way had 14,000 fewer employees in 1991 owing to layoffs and hiring freezes, United Way spokesman Mel Tansill said.

Thanks to the generosity of government workers, the United Way of Central Maryland raised a record $39 million in its 1991 campaign.The donations from government workers more than made up for a shortfall in the private sector blamed on the recession, the United Way said yesterday.Donations from the private-sector categories, many from companies hard hit by the recession, fell about $1.8 million below their $33.2 million goal, campaign officials said.The top 50 companies that have in the past raised more than $100,000 each for the United Way had 14,000 fewer employees in 1991 because of layoffs and hiring freezes, United Way spokesman Mel Tansill said.

With the help of clowns and jugglers, the United Way of Central Maryland kicked off this year's campaign, which has a goal of $33.2 million.About 1,000 people attended a kick-off breakfast yesterday at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel.More than 300 agencies are funded by the United Way in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties. They assist about 800,000 people a year.This year's campaign, which has been extended from three months to five months, will target 1,800 area companies with 50 or more employees, said Mel Tansill, the United Way director of media and community relations.

If a Washington-based coalition of 23 environmental agencies has its way, the phrase "I gave at the office" will soon take on a whole new meaning.Earlier this month, the Environmental Federation of America, composed of such august groups as the Wilderness Society, the American Forestry Association and the Friends of the Earth, began a campaign to persuade businesses to offer the federation as an alternative to the United Way in their annual officewide charity...

An article on a United Way conference in the late editions of The Sun yesterday misstated the amount of donations in the Maryland agency's fund-raising campaign last year. Donations exceeded $31 million.The Sun regrets the error.Americans gave at record levels to United Way last year with donations totaling $3 billion, officials of the fund-raising organization said yesterday as they began a three-day meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center.But professionals and volunteers gathered for the annualconference said they now face a big task: persuading donors to continue giving at those levels despite the economic crunch.

Loch Raven, 1979Our eyes are red to the old Kodakas our skin glows againstthe summer night.My brother and I arebalancing on a thick wooly tree,the jagged breaks to the leftof our Keds.Mom and Dad tell us to look atthe power of a storm,the trees snapped last weekas easily as our dog's teethpounces on scraps.We scuttle over the trees,our tight skin pulled over bones,our young lives vulnerable andinsignificantover the dead sharp branches. CNN's zoom lens:brings focus tothe presidential candidateand his alleged marital infidelitymaking him as confident asJesus entering Jerusalem:his campaign gaining supportin cities where votersdo not have to worry aboutpublic opinion polls:when they sleep with strangersMel Tansill

United Way of Central Maryland has reported a 19.5 percent increase in the number of people receiving substance abuse prevention and treatment services from member agencies last year.Substance-abuse services reached a record 38,271 people in 1990 through eight agencies, which received a total of $568,000 from United Way, said spokesman Mel Tansill.The services ranged from individual counseling and substance abuse-related delinquency prevention services to comprehensive family services to prevent suicide, the spokesman said.

New positions Austria and Grafov join Benelogic LLC Benelogic LLC announced the appointments of Allan Austria as customer service representative and Andrey Grafov as an engineer for the Timonium-based provider of benefits industry software applications and services. Austria, previously with Prime Foods as an administrative assistant, is a graduate of American University. Grafov, a physics and mathematics graduate of Nizhny Novgorod State University in Russia, is a former programmer and analyst with RGII Technologies Inc. Finance Pollard named VP at Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch announced that Patrick Pollard was named a vice president and resident manager and is assigned to its Bel Air office.

Ever since Democrats voted William Donald Schaefer out of a job, the rumor mill has been trying to hook him up with a new one. The latest alleged gig: Baltimore City school board member. No comments all around from everyone involved in the complicated appointment process. (The state school board vets applications and sends them to the governor and mayor, who have joint appointment power.) But there are no comments, and then there are no comments. One of the more interesting ones came from Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Gov. Robert Ehrlich.

The state Board of Public Works yesterday approved the sale of a former 152-acre facility for the mentally retarded to a Catonsville company that plans to convert it into a $250 million retirement community.Senior Campus Living Inc.'s $9.1 million purchase of the former Great Oaks Center land, which straddles the Prince George's-Montgomery County line, is contingent upon local zoning and site plan approval.The company, developer of the Charlestown and Oak Crest Village communities in Catonsville and Parkville, respectively, plans to build up to 2,000 senior living units, a nursing home, medical center and other facilities at Great Oaks.