On eve of April 15, VITA program gets some attention

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program of UW-Green Bay was recognized Tuesday at the 21st annual community Volunteer Awards Breakfast hosted by Wisconsin Public Service at the KI Convention Center. While the student-run program supervised by accounting faculty didn’t win the small-group category, it was honored with a nomination. For more than 30 years, the program has helped taxpayers in need of assistance (most often the poor, disabled or elderly). By conservative estimates, at least 7,000 community members have been helped since the program’s inception in the early 1970s (long before the national VITA program was established). The UW-Green Bay VITA travels to where the need is greatest, this year setting up shop at the Salvation Army, Fort Howard Family Resource Center, Oneida Center for Self-Sufficiency, and UW-Green Bay.