| United Way organizers plan to ring in new year | | Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 9:05 pm
| By KEVIN BOWDEN
Staff Reporter
It’s going to be a festive New Year’s Eve at Union City’s Hampton Centré, when the Obion County United Way hosts a holiday dance featuring DJ Egor of Union City.
“I think it sounds good. It’d be something different,” United Way board member David Harris said.
He and others at Tuesday afternoon’s United Way board meeting mulled over the idea of a New Year’s Eve dance briefly before voting unanimously for the event. The board has been discussing the idea for a couple of months as a fundraising event for United Way.
At $100 a ticket (for a couple), the event has the potential to raise about $3,000 for United Way. Organizers are expecting to sell about 50 tickets for the dance.
Claudia Maness, who met with the United Way board to go over the details of the dance, said it will cost about $2,000 to put on the event. The Hampton Centré will be responsible for providing finger foods and there will be a cash bar set up at the dance. The conference center will also be brightly decorated for the evening.
As for the DJ, also known as Aaron Jowers, Mrs. Maness promised a lively evening to ring in the new year.
“He gets the crowd really involved,” she said. “He’s really good at getting people up on their feet.”
As part of his show, his dance music will be accompanied by a light show and smoke.
Now that the United Way board has approved the dance, the next step will be marketing the event. The board will promote the dance at the upcoming Taste of Ken-Tenn as well as at a Dancing With the Stars fundraiser planned for Oct. 27 at the Hampton Centré.
The idea to host a New Year’s Eve dance has been the brainchild of United Way’s Lesley Anderson, who has been pushing the project during recent board meetings.
“This will leapfrog our fall fundraising,” United Way board chairman Jeff Bennett said.
The New Year’s Eve dance is one of several upcoming United Way fundraising events planned during this fall.
The local United Way will be putting out its three giant thermometers (at the entrance to Walmart, at Reelfoot Avenue and Jackson Street and in downtown Union City’s Merchants Park) in the next few weeks. The board decided Tuesday to keep its fall fundraising goal the same as last year’s goal — $75,000.
In addition to its payroll deduction program, the local United Way has scheduled a Jeans Day for Oct. 5, a skeet shoot fundraiser for Oct. 6 and a fall tennis tournament for Oct. 5-7 at the Union City Middle School tennis courts.
A Jeans Day held this past spring raised more than $2,000 for the local United Way. Employers who participate in the Jeans Day allow their employees to wear jeans to work on Oct. 5, if the employees buy and wear a $1 United Way sticker. The stickers are currently available at the Obion County Chamber of Commerce for those interested in getting involved in the event.
As for the tennis tournament, Harris is working with Judy McBride on the tournament, and Kyle Baggett and Kurt Baggett are working on the upcoming skeet shoot.
Staff Reporter Kevin Bowden may be contacted by email at kmbowden@ucmessenger.com.
Published in The Messenger 9.19.12 | | | | |
