25 local bands to take part in virtual benefit concert for the Centre County United Way

The Centre County United Way is doing what it can to give back to its 28 partner agencies and is hosting #LIVEUNITEDLive from 6-10 p.m. Friday, a virtual concert with pre-recorded performances by local performers.

“Twenty-five local bands will be performing two or three songs, from their homes, to entertain and lift spirits as we navigate through this challenging time,” Centre County United Way Communications Coordinator & Employee Campaign Coordinator Megan Evans wrote in an email. “The event will be on the Centre County United Way’s Facebook page and will have an option for people to make donations to Centre County United Way.”

The event is part of the CCUW’s annual fundraising efforts, and is being held in a way that honors COVID-19 social distancing guidelines and other societal shifts since the onset of the virus. Performers include the musically luminescent Raven and the Wren, the hard-rocking Donny Burns and the Third Degree, the retro-country Kristi Jean and Her Ne’er Do Wells, the prolific Chris Straight and many more.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made us rethink how we will be raising money this year and moving forward,” Evans wrote. “We will be asking for donations from people watching, and those donations will stay local and will help our 28 agencies continue to provide services to our neighbors.”

Evans said it is vital for CCUW to continue to support its partner agencies, because those agencies are directly supporting people and families that struggle, especially since the onset of COVID-19, which has heightened already prevalent basic needs and created new challenges.

“Twenty-seven percent of the people in Centre County are not making enough to pay for their basic needs,” Evans wrote. “They are one crisis away from falling in to poverty. Centre County United Way plays a vital role in keeping our partner agencies’ programs able to provide services in the area of health, income stability and education.”

The goal of the event is to bring people together at a time when they are supposed to stay apart, for the betterment of the community as a whole.

“People are losing their jobs, losing health insurance, struggling to pay rent, buy food, etc,” Evans wrote. “Centre County United Way is hoping to rally our community to ‘live united.’ To give what they can to help one another.”

To make sure the event runs as smooth as can be, local master of ceremonies guru Jeff Brown will be leading the way. Brown and Steve Sampsell, both from the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State, came up with the idea of doing a live Facebook event, and Brown sent out performance requests to the music community in Centre County. The response was positive, including musicians like Eric Ian Farmer and Screwdriver Sally, who cannot provide a performance, but are donating from their merchandise sales.

“My first thought was a Live Aid kind of concert,” Brown said. “We have such incredible talent in this area and they’re all so generous with their time. But, I couldn’t make it work because of social distancing.”

Faced with a dilemma of how to host a concert when people are not able to safely be in contact with one another, Brown received a fortuitous call from Sampsell, a CCUW board member, who was looking to organize a similar event. Samspell started making some calls, and Brown started working his contacts in the Centre County music scene.

“I’m going to be live,” Brown said, “and we’re going to put the bands in groups of three. That way we can tell people when their favorite band is on, and ideally it will be great if people settle in for the whole four hours, because it’s going be immensely entertaining.”

It was important to Brown to make sure it is clear how the funds will be used.

“We’ll have a tab on there where they can donate,” Brown said. “I want to stress that 100% of everything we raise Friday night is going to stay right here in Centre and go to the United Way for the food bank and the other 28 partner agencies.”

The CCUW works closely with partners to assess needs and to find ways to support the partners, including financially. To get funds, partners go through a specific process and make program-specific proposals, as the CCUW technically funds programs, not agencies.

“Each agency submits an application that outlines what program(s) they are requesting funding for,” Evans wrote. “The application includes financial information, program outcomes, the needs that are being addressed, etc. Volunteers then meet with the agencies individually and after all meetings are completed they make a final decision on how much funding each will receive.”

The programs the CCUW supports have a wide reach.

“So, specifically we help thousands of people in Centre County have access to programs they need to be successful and healthy,” Evans wrote.

For Evans, it’s a labor of love.

“We raise money for our nonprofit agencies, which helps relieve some of the burden they have to stay up and running,” Evans wrote. “I could talk (and write) for hours about Centre County United Way and all that we do in the community.”