The Scurry County United Way campaign is going old-school to kickoff its 2018-19 fundraising campaign.
On Sept. 15, the campaign will officially begin with County Fair on the Square. Executive Secretary Sheila Hale said the campaign’s board agreed to begin the campaign differently this year and hopes it will lead to wider community involvement.
The County Fair on the Square will begin at 4 p.m. and will include the presentation of the final 2017-18 campaign allocations to eight local agencies.
The eight agencies served by the campaign last year, as well as this year, are Scurry Community Services, Gateway Family Services, West Texas Children’s Advocacy Center, Buffalo Trail Boy Scouts, Texas-Oklahoma Plains Girl Scouts, Cancer Services Network, Scurry County Food Cupboard and the Snyder Volunteer Fire Department.
“Each of our agencies will have a booth at the fair so people will have a chance to learn a little about them,” Hale said.
She got the idea for hosting a county fair-type event after speaking to people about her job as executive secretary for United Way.
“A lot of people said, ‘United Way, what do they do?’” she said. “I thought this might be a better way for the community to meet us and meet our agencies.”
Several local businesses have already signed up for booths and all donations collected by the booths will benefit the campaign, which has set a $118,000 goal for 2018-19. Businesses may still sign up for a booth by calling the United Way office at 573-5311 from 1-5 p.m. weekdays.
“We want everyone to have a good time and spend time together,” she said.
Activities will include a bounce house, face-painting booth, tug-o-war area, a blind obstacle course and archery. Hale said the Scurry County Library will have a booth set up for story time and United Supermarket will sell hot dogs. Popcorn, snow cones and watermelon will also be available.
The volunteer fire department is planning to bring a truck to the fair.
“We are working on a dunking booth or pie-in-the-face area for Snyder ISD coaches and principals,” Hale said.
The organization’s board of directors, according to Hale, hopes the event is a successful kickoff to the campaign. The fundraising drive’s goal is lower this year due to a drop in administrative costs and some agencies requesting less, but Hale said she wants to surpass it this year.
“We have reduced our costs this year. We are hoping to go above and beyond our campaign goal and help our agencies as much as we can,” she said.
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