United Way of Southeast Missouri gave away air-conditioning units to their partnerships and the community last week.

Elizabeth Shelton, executive director of United Way of Southeast Missouri, said Thursday, Aug. 1, that with the organization's funds, it purchased 30 units after receiving many calls about the heat in the area.

"United Way connects people in need with the resources they need to help them," Shelton said "We are a nimble organization and as soon as we started getting calls, more than we had in the past, we sprang into action and United Way fills the gaps. And that's what we're doing by providing these ACs and, hopefully, we're saving lives."

Shelton said the United Way is grateful for the community.

"We're grateful to our community who gave us these donations that were to go to our partner network, and we had a partner who was unable to use their full allocation. So these are actually coming from the members of our community, going back out to help our neighbors in our community," she said.