‘Celebrity Baggers’ needed for upcoming United Way fundraiser
Published 6:50 pm Tuesday, October 24, 2017
- Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye Market President for Carter County Bank Anderw McKeehan, left, and Mountain State Health Alliance Chief Nursing Executive Melanie Stanton, right, load groceries into a customer's cart during the local United Way's annual Celebrity Bagger fundraiser event last year. The agency is currently looking for volunteers to take part in the event this year.
Looking for a way to help make a difference in your community? If so, the United Way may just have the perfect way to give back.
The United Way of Elizabethton/Carter County is currently recruiting volunteers for their annual Celebrity Baggers fundraiser. The event takes community leaders and other volunteers into local grocery stores where they bag groceries for customers as they share information on the United Way mission and projects going on in the community.
This year’s Celebrity Baggers will take place on Tuesday, November 21 — which is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The event will begin that morning and run until 6 p.m. The United Way of Elizabethton/Carter County hosts the event at two stores — the Food City location on Broad Street in Elizabethton and the Food City location on the Bristol Highway in Piney Flats. UWECC Community Impact Coordinator Crystal Carter said the agency needs 36 volunteers at each location.
Volunteers need to be at least 18 years of age to take part in the event. Carter said she is hoping that local elected officials, business professionals, and community leaders will sign up to take part in the event, but volunteers can come from all walks of life.
To participate, volunteers sign up for a specific time slot at the store of their choice. On the day of the event, volunteers should arrive a few minutes early for their shift for a quick training.
“Each shift is an hour, but they can work longer if they want to,” Carter said. “We understand they have other obligations, so we only ask an hour of their time.”
Donations for the local United Way are collected during the event but helping to spread the message of what United Way is and how they help the community is just as important according to Carter.
“While everyone knows there are a lot of hardships in the area, I think people want to see what action we are taking and how we are helping,” Carter said.
The annual event is one of the many fundraisers hosted by the United Way of Elizabethton/Carter County to help support community organizations that provide needed services to residents.
This year’s fundraising campaign kicked off on September 20 with a goal of raising $125,000. So far, Carter said, the agency has raised about $28,490 toward that goal through donations and pledges.
