ST. THOMAS — Many philanthropic organizations on St. Thomas and St. John will benefit from many local businesses and individuals’ burst of generosity Saturday morning.

By the end of the United Way of St. Thomas and St. John 2005 Campaign Kickoff and Appreciation breakfast, the organization was almost half way to reaching its 2005 fund-raising goal of $800,000.

The record-setting kickoff event, which raised $335,055, followed a successful 2004 campaign that surpassed the group’s 2004 goal of $800,000 by $30,000.

“As a community, we are a unit, and when we work together, we can do almost anything,” said Juanita Young, president of the United Way board of directors. “Let’s do it again.”

The United Way funds 14 agencies in the district that educate, transport, house, help and provide health care and spiritual services for Virgin Islanders.

A brief video played at the kickoff event showed a montage of photographs of the United Way’s community involvement. Pictures of smiling Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and athletes and activists cleaning neighborhoods and painting walls were projected on a screen in the darkened ballroom.

Then came audience participation.

Steve Baker, co-chair of the 2005 campaign and chair of the 2004 campaign, read a long list of companies and individual donors, many of whom were present at the buffet-style breakfast at The Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas.

And with each name called out came a figure, often times more than $5,000 and occasionally as high as $25,000, that the individual or company pledged toward the 2005 campaign.

All told, in the half-hour it took for the list to be read, 42 percent of the 2005 goal had been attained through pledges, and a new kickoff record had been set, beating the 2004 kickoff tally of $282,000 by $53,055.

“The record-breaking amount of $335,055 in kickoff donations is a phenomenal showing of commitment to our community,” said campaign Co-Chair Cornel Williams.