United Way of Lake County’s September 12 Campaign Kickoff Attracts Largest Crowd Ever at Over 1,000 Guests
High School Band Drumline Showcase Raises Over $3,500
Mentor, OH (September 14, 2018) – United Way of Lake County (UWLC) kicked off their 2018 Giving Campaign Kickoff the evening of Wednesday, September 12, 2018 with a free community event at Classic Park in Eastlake, home of the Lake County Captains.
The event showcased the marching band drumlines from six Lake County high schools. Participating high school included the Fairport Harbor Marching Band Drumline, the Harvey Red Raider Marching Band Drumline, the Lake Catholic Cougar Pride Marching Band Drumline, the Madison Blue Streak Drumline, the Riverside Regiment Marching Drumline and the Wickliffe Blue Devil Swing Band Drumline.
The event was UWLC’s largest kickoff ever drawing a crowd of over one thousand guests. The celebration was the brainchild of Morris Beverage III, United Way of Lake County’s 2018 Campaign Chair and President of Lighthouse Advisors in Mentor.
Beverage encouraged guests to vote for their favorite drumline performance by stuffing each school’s donation jar with dollar bills in support of their favorite “Community Impact Champion.” All proceeds benefited UWLC.
“United Way is the best way to help the most people, and I’m looking forward to my time leading this campaign. I know the impact one dollar and one person can make. I also know the enormous impact we can collectively make when, as a community, we commit to taking care of our own.” said Beverage.
Beverage went on to say that nearly one-third of Lake County residents struggle to afford basic necessities. “Many working residents live paycheck to paycheck and do not have a savings to fall back on. Too many people in our community are faced with the daily dilemma of whether to put food on the table for their families, fill their gas tank to get to work, pay the electric bill or pay for needed medication,” said Beverage.
After each performance, special guest commentators were on hand to provide feedback. Commentators included Eastlake Mayor Dennis Morley; Willowick Mayor Rich Regovich; Brint Learned, Executive Director of Rabbit Run Community Arts Center; Bobbie Yerman from Collage Band; Thomas Clark from the band Country Redford; and Dave Vogrin, a drummer from the Cleveland music scene for over 25 years, most notably with Dave’s Planet and Post Road.
At the end of the evening, Beverage announced that the Riverside Regiment Drumline ensemble raised the most individual donations to claim the title of “Community Impact Champion.”
A 50/50 raffle and an agency fair also took place with fireworks capping off the night.
Overall, the six drumlines raised a total sum of $2,593 and donations continued to come in after the event taking the total sum raised to benefit Lake County’s most vulnerable residents to over $3,500.
“The Lake County Captains and the city of Eastlake have always been great friends and supporter of ours and have generously welcomed our use of the stadium to host our kickoff celebration. I am especially grateful to Eastlake Mayor Dennis Morley, General Manager of the Lake County Captains Neil Stein, and owners of the Lake County Captains, Peter and Rita Carfagna, for welcoming us,” said Jennifer McCarty, President and CEO of United Way of Lake County. They all went above and beyond to ensure our event was a huge success.”
“We’re looking forward to making the drumline showcase an annual tradition. We had amazing feedback about the event and the band directors were especially thrilled their students had the opportunity to both perform and give back to our community,” said McCarty.
Lake Health sponsored the event. Representatives from Avery Dennison, Component Repair Technologies (CRT), FirstEnergy and The Lubrizol Corporation, UWLC’s four largest corporate contributors, were all on hand in support.