Telethon Kicks Off United Way Ross County Annual Campaign

Presented by Hometown-Motors, Inc.

United Way of Ross County, announced the details of its 2020-2021 Campaign Kickoff Thursday. The kickoff will be held in the form of a telethon, to be held on September 13, 2020, at Chillicothe’s historic Majestic Theatre from 11:00 am -7:00 pm and will be streamed live via Facebook.

The campaign theme is United We All Win.

“We found the theme, ‘United We All Win,’ to be very appropriate given the challenges faced in fundraising during this time of COVID-19,” says Rick W. Smith Sr., MBA, MA, CFRL, president and CEO, United Way of Ross County.

“Nonprofits around the world are faced with an inability to raise money through their typical means via special events like galas, golf tournaments, and in-person visits. For us, we raise most of the money that we grant back into the community through traditional workplace giving campaigns. While we plan to do some of this, but due to COVID-19, many businesses cannot allow us to come into their buildings. So we as a staff decided that we would offer a virtual event to the community, a virtual telethon that would be much fun, raise money and benefit the community. United We All Win.”

The telethon will be hosted by, Lori Graves, and will feature regional talent and national talent from various parts of the country. The telethon also features comedian, Michael Colyar who’s appeared on The Martin Lawrence Show and ABC’s Black-ish.

The event will also feature music from Asa Lovechild, Scott Butterbaugh, Alexis Cierra, Scott Collier, and Dave Huffman, as well as local bands Six to Noon and BBJ Project, along with acoustic talent Pete Blevins and Funny Bone comedian Jon Craig.

“The telethon will be loads of fun as lots of entertainment will be offered, and we will conduct a silent auction with some amazing items up for bid, including vacation packages, weekend dinners, artwork from world renowned visual artist and author, Synthia SAINT JAMES and a local artist who will create a piece of art that will be auctioned to the highest bidder” says Smith. “There will also be some surprise guests that you will not want to miss.” The musical talent will be segmented into various genres of music, from Gospel to Country and Hip-Hop to Blues to Bluegrass.

The money raised from the telethon will go back into the community through grants that the United Way of Ross County gives to Ross County non-profits and schools.

For more information, contact the United Way of Ross County at (740) 773-3280.