By Eileen K. McCluskey

Special to the Gazette

The atmosphere crackled with enthusiasm and goodwill this past Wednesday as several hundred staff and faculty who will help raise money for the Community Gifts through Harvard Campaign gathered for a kickoff luncheon to hear speakers praise the Harvard community's past performance and inspire it toward new levels of participation.

The luncheon was hosted by President Neil L. Rudenstine and Campaign chairman James Rowe, Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs.

Speakers included Rudenstine; Eleanor Shore, dean for Faculty Affairs at the Medical School; Anna Barbara Carter Bruno, senior direct services manager of Rosie's Place; Thomas L.P. O'Donnell, chairman of the board with United Way and a partner in the law firm of Ropes and Gray; and Carolyn Hansen, United Way Loaned Executive.

The Campaign, which last year raised nearly $735,000 for more than 600 agencies, is unique among those of large institutions because it allows faculty and staff to donate to particular agencies or to umbrella groups such as United Way of Massachusetts Bay, Community Works, or the Massachusetts Foundation for Children.

This week, Harvard faculty and staff will receive envelopes containing pledge cards, Campaign literature, and letters from their local representatives inviting them to make a contribution to a charity of their choice. Employees can write a check or make their contributions through payroll deductions, which can be spread over the entire year.

In his remarks, Rudenstine focused on the need to exceed last year's participation rate of 40 percent. The Campaign is "one of the ways we support and attach ourselves to the community," Rudenstine said. Noting that, in the United States, individual donations to human service agencies are pivotal for helping those in need, Rudenstine said, "we are a volunteer nation. So let's get behind this [Campaign], beat [last year's] record, get the participation up, and do well by doing good."

Shore spoke of how, from her own experiences in volunteer work, she has found that "contributing dollars or volunteering time to organizations outside one's own work and family lends a third dimension to life. They lend a zest that enhances the best times and buffers the worst."

Addressing "the idea that one single gift will be so small that it really won't make a difference," Shore emphatically said, "if each of us at Harvard picks one of the Greater Boston charities for a contribution, our numbers are so large that the impact for each recipient is going to be very significant."

"I would not be here today if it were not for United Way," said Hansen, after giving a moving testimonial of a storybook life that went awry. Hansen, who earned a master's of education at Harvard in 1985, said an alcoholic and abusive ex-husband had, a decade ago, wreaked havoc in Hansen's life and that of her daughter. "The safety net of United Way saved us," she reported. These days, Hansen works with United Way. "I have never felt this good doing what I do on a daily basis," she said.

O'Donnell mentioned that each year, "over 200 volunteers visit" those organizations slated for United Way funds, "to evaluate how effectively the dollars are spent."

Bruno noted, "We simply can't make it without you." In just the past three months, she said, "our two drop-in center advocates saw over 1,500 women," whose needs include "taking a shower, washing their clothes," and getting "diapers for their babies."

Rowe said the faculty and staff contributions "combine as a great Harvard orchestra." He urged Campaign volunteers to catapult this year's giving beyond $700,000, and to encourage "greater participation."

The Campaign will run through the month of November. For more information, call Campaign Manager Mary Ann Jarvis at the Community Gifts through Harvard office at 495-1598.