But some events, like the Shamrock Shuffle 5K/10K and Community Block Party, still raised money, though the event scheduled for March 14 was cancelled. Karen Gibbs, director of programs and marketing for the Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty Twp., called cancelling the event “a real heart-breaker.”
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Still, she said, about 90 percent of the 2,000 participants who pre-registered donated their fees that ranged from $30 to $45, and the majority of the sponsors continued their financial support.
“That was really great,” she said.
The Shamrock Shuffle, one of Butler County’s largest events, typically raises about $100,000, Gibbs said. While she said the 2020 finances aren’t complete, she expects proceeds to be “down somewhat.”
The Shamrock Shuffle usually includes more than 5,000 attendees on The Square @ Union Centre in West Chester. Proceeds support the community foundation’s Community Grants Fund and ongoing operations and the many different nonprofit organizations that register a team through the Shuffle Gives Back program, Gibbs said.
Last year, the Shamrock Shuffle raised more than $110,000 and granted $32,000 back to participating charity teams, she said.
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Jeff Diver, executive director of Supports to Encourage Low-income Families (SELF), said the 24th annual celebration, the organization’s largest fundraiser, has been cancelled after first being rescheduled from May 1 to May 22.
He said last year’s banquet raised $30,000, and most of the major sponsors this year continued their support. Still, he said, every program in the county SELF supports will be impacted by the cancellation, he said.
“That’s a lot of money to us,” he said. “That’s money we count on.”
One of downtown Middletown’s largest events, Women’s Wine and Chocolate Walk, set for May 16, has been postponed until at least July, said Jeff Payne, executive director of the Downtown Middletown Inc., the organizer. In its first seven years, the event has served as a major fundraiser for DMI and generated thousands of dollars for downtown businesses, he said.
Payne said the 2019 Women’s Wine and Chocolate Walk raised $30,000 and generated $100,000 to downtown businesses, according to statistics provided by the Middletown Visitors Bureau.
“That’s the ripple effect,” he said.
The DMI is funded three ways: public funding, private contributions and earned income through events like the wine and chocolate walk and Hops in the Hangar. Those funds, he said, helped support 40 DMI events last year.
Payne said he’s concerned about small businesses and how they can survive being closed during the coronavirus. Most of them have been closed for about one month and no reopening date has been announced by DeWine.
A former economics teacher, Payne said the COVID-19 is creating “a real shock” to businesses.
The 12th annual Veterans Memorial Scholarship Fund Golf Outing, which provides scholarships to relatives of veterans, has been cancelled, but organizers said scholarships will continue to be awarded.
The event was set for July 18 at Wildwood Golf Club in Middletown and hoped to raise $10,000, said Deb Morrison, treasurer of the organization. She said the Middletown Community Foundation distributes the renewable scholarships that range from $1,500 to $2,500.
Morrison said enough money has been raised to continue the scholarship program.
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