For the past 16 years, Tim Garvin has been the face of United Way Central Massachusetts.
While Garvin has overseen nearly two decades of charitable giving and community outreach, the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have particularly demonstrated the community’s need for United Way’s services. United Way implemented drive-thru food pantries in partnership with the Worcester Red Sox, Worcester State University, and Table Talk Pies, as well as a farm-to-market food pantry in conjunction with retailers Maker to Main and El Buen Samaritano. Garvin’s leadership widened vaccine accessibility with equity clinics and vaccine corps.
United Way recognized the humanitarian needs abroad and founded the Afghan Refugee Work Group Fund, using an initial $100,000 donation to help settle 749 Afghan refugees into the city. The $100,000 Refugee Fund has grown to more than $1 million, allowing United Way Central Massachusetts to redirect its attention on assisting Ukrainian refugees.
What sets the Central Mass. business community apart from the rest of the world? In my 40 years of work around the world, I have found Central Mass., and Worcester in particular, to be the most compassionate and the most collaborative community anywhere. People – business leaders, elected officials, nonprofit directors, neighborhood groups, residents – are accessible. They listen. They choose to get involved. They put caring into action.
Favorite pastime: I love baseball. Perhaps because it was the piece of America that I attached myself to when living in Beirut in the mid-1960s. I still have and still treasure my collection of 1960s Willie Mays baseball cards. I even believe that it was Willie Mays who taught me to read.
