SALYERSVILLE – While plans for the event were nearly complete and the lineup was set, the Magoffin County Community Foundation announced this week that the 17th Annual Magoffin County Community Day is canceled.
As COVID-19 numbers continue to increase in the region, the group made the announcement on Tuesday canceling the event in the park, opting for safer ways to raise money for local nonprofits.
Lana Blanton, the Magoffin County Community Day Coordinator, posted on Facebook the following on August 3:
With heavy heart I must announce that this year’s 17th Annual Magoffin County Community Day has been cancelled due to the increase of covid cases including the delta variant in our county and state. It would be reckless of us to have an event that we cannot protect our non-profit participants, our entertainers, our visitors, our staff and volunteers from an unseen enemy that does not discriminate on whom it makes sick.
We will be launching a Good Giving Campaign in a few days; similar to how we continued helping our groups in 2020. We will also be doing some new things. We will be offering chances on a good used car, the same one that would have been given away to a lucky ticket holder if we would have had Community Day.
I know this decision has disappointed so many goers to Community Day and I am deeply sorry. This was a hard decision for us to make but it is the right one to keep our community safe.
Blanton told the Independent that starting Friday people will be able to purchase a ticket for a chance to win a 2009 Ford Focus, with tickets available from either Salyersville National Bank branch or from any nonprofit group member that was participating in Community Day. Tickets are $10 each, the same price people who have paid for admission to the event, which would have entered them for a chance for the car.
The foundation also has a website available for people to donate, calling it a “Good Giving Link,“ which is available at https://bgcf.givingfuel.com/communityday , now online. Many of the nonprofit organizations will be offering items to be raffled off, which will be given away at the end of the campaign or as designated by each individual group, and the foundation and/or the nonprofit groups is hoping to plan other activities to help raise money for the event. All monies raised will be eligible for a match of up to $35,000, with all funds raised going toward the local participating nonprofit organizations.
For the past 17 years, Magoffin County Community Day has been instrumental in helping local nonprofits and civic groups raise funds for the countless good things they do in the community, raising over $1.3 million in total since it began.
Community Day usually brings in approximately $80,000 to $85,000 each year for local nonprofits. Last year was the first year the event had been canceled since it started, with over $73,000 raised in a virtual fundraiser, also to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
The Independent will announce all updates to this year’s Community Day Good Giving Campaign as information is released.
