Meet our 2021 AmplifiHER Honorees

Aimee Kereage

Community Impact
Manchester, NH

Aimee Kereage, Director of Community Impact with Granite United Way has committed so much time and energy into supporting her community members, especially children and families in the Greater Manchester area, throughout this challenging year. Aimee champions efforts to help others through this crisis both professionally and personally. She has established deep roots and built strong relationships with Manchester’s youth-serving organizations and school district through the Youth Enrichment Partnership and has led many efforts to support families, such as: distributing bags of groceries through the weekly “Fuel Our Families” program, expanding mental health and academic supports, and raising funds to connect families to critical resources through Granite United Way’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. All the while she finds time to celebrate the many partners who contribute to these efforts and tries to help people smile and find joy in these acts of caring for our community.

In support of this nomination, some of our partners shared their perspective of working with Aimee throughout the pandemic: Jayna Stevens, Director of Operations and Development for the Manchester Police Athletic League, “The definition of a Superhero is a benevolent fictional character with extraordinary superhuman powers” Although Aimee Kereage is not a fictional character, I believe the characteristics that define her, responsible, morally strong, a fighter for equity and a leader put her in the same category as Wonder Woman throughout the pandemic. Aimee has led the Manchester Community with her extraordinary ability to connect people. She sees a need and partners with the right people to address it. Aimee helped secure money, supplies, food and facilitated pathways to partnerships. Aimee may not have a special uniform, but she wears a cape of humor and genuine caring. The Manchester Police Athletic League is proud to be a part of pandemic outreach initiated by Aimee and the United Way. Steve Thiel, Assistant Vice President of Social Impact & Community Relations for Southern New Hampshire University, “When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Manchester, it required previously unreached levels of coordination and collaboration. Aimee, through her work leading Granite United Way’s Youth Enrichment Project, was a key catalyzer of this coordination. As the public schools announced they were shifting to remote work, Aimee gathered nonprofit partners, municipal stakeholders, and the business community together to reach necessary solutions quickly. This gathering led to several crucial programs that have been running throughout the pandemic, including programs fighting food insecurity, mental health challenges, technology gaps, and other immediate needs. Aimee has truly been a champion during this pandemic, and has brought the necessary spirit to getting work done on behalf of Manchesterís families.” Jennifer Gillis, Ed.D, Assistant Superintendent, Operations for the Manchester School District, “Over the last 12+ months Aimee has been a key player in our work to address food insecurity. Aimee has been known to shop in her off hours for great buys, lug box after box to from a local store to the packing location at West and donate countless hours prepping/packing weekend meal kits. Aimee has always come to our collective work with a can-do attitude, patience and a firm commitment to getting it right for our families. In Aimee’s other work in our district, she has sought to build capacity, may it be reading plus to professional development, she is a consummate professional.” Jessica Riendeau, Community Outreach Director, The Granite YMCA, “Aimee has been a key partner for the Granite YMCA in launching the Fuel Our Families program. Since March of 2020, our partnership has provided more than 180,000 meals ensure that our families in Greater Manchester are supported with their food insecurity. Pre COVID-Manchester had about 60% of their students on Free and Reduced lunch, we know that this has increased with the pandemic and something needed to be done to support our youth.î In her free time, Aimee continues to support efforts that will save lives through the pandemic, such as donating plasma and volunteering at vaccination clinics. She has gone above and beyond to support others despite her own personal losses she has struggled with related to COVID-19. Her commitment and motivation to help cannot be questioned and she truly deserves to be recognized as the hero that she is!