Chickenfest? Are you ready to cluck?

United Way of Summit County is hosting the return of ‘Chickenfest!TM’ to Barberton’s Lake Anna Park, Friday September 7, from 5:00 to 10:00 pm and Saturday, September 8, from 12:00 noon to 10:00 pm.

Local restaurants participating include DeVore’s Hopocan Gardens, Belgrade Garden, Milich’s Village Inn, and Hodge’s Café along with concessionaires Destefano’s and Byers.

Entertainment will include the local band ‘Accent’ on Friday night from 7:00 to 10:00 pm in the Gazebo. Accent is a local, high-energy top 40 dance band playing hits from the 60s to the present. They were the winning band at United Way’s Docs Who RockTM physician talent show in 2006.

On Saturday night from 7:00 to 10:00 pm, the Gazebo will rock to the sounds of ‘The New Flames Band’ from Barberton. These crowd-pleasers play the hits from the 50s and 60s.
There will also be vendors on hand with home-made crafts and other business people displaying and selling their wares. Our media partners for Chickenfest are WAKR, WONE & WQMX radio stations.

United Way of Summit County President Bob Kulinski said, “We are pleased to be returning this tradition to the people of Barberton. We hope this will be just another reminder of the many ways the people of Barberton and surrounding communities are being served by United Way of Summit County.”

United Way of Summit County improves lives by mobilizing community assets for health and human services. For more information, call 330-762-7601, visit our website at www.uwsummit.org, or write to us at United Way of Summit County, 90 N. Prospect St., P.O. Box 1260, Akron, Ohio 44309-1260.

Pacesetters are off and running

Thanks so much to all the companies running pacesetter campaigns, getting our 2007 Campaign off to a great start.

Acme Fresh Markets
Albrecht, Incorporated
The ARC of Summit & Portage Counties
Battered Women's Shelter
Bober, Markey, Fedorovich & Company
Boys & Girls Clubs of Summit County
Brennan Management Group, LLC
Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire
CBIZ/Mayer Hoffman McCann
Charter One Bank
City of Akron
City Scrap & Salvage Company
Cohen & Company
Coleman Data Solutions
ComDoc, Inc.
Community Legal Aid Services, Inc.
CYO & Community Services
FirstEnergy Corp.
Greenleaf Family Center
Hitchcock Fleming & Associates
Humility of Mary Housing, Inc.
Ikon Office Solutions
Mobile Meals, Inc.
OMNOVA Solutions Inc.
Sam's Club #4750
Sam's Club #6404
Stark & Knoll
State and Federal Communications, Inc.
Sterling Jewelers Inc.
United Way of Summit County
UPS
Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, LLP
Wal-Mart #1895
Wal-Mart #1911
Wal-Mart #1927
Wal-Mart #2323
YMCA - Akron Area

Pacesetters receive unique recognition opportunities through media and our website and will be invited to our campaign kick-off event as a special thank you. Pacesetter campaigns should be completed by September 14, 2007. If your company would like to run a Pacesetter Campaign, contact Katie Rennard, Vice President Resource Development at 330.643.5517 or email krennard@uwsummit.org.

National Association of Letter Carriers Says Thanks

The following letter was sent to United Way of America President Brian Gallagher:

Dear Brian:

With the tremendous support of United Way of America and local United Ways, we once again had a successful food drive this year - increasing to 70.7 million pounds of donations to help stock our nation's food banks and pantries.

I thank you for your personal support of the drive and the premendous amount of work and dedication by United Way officials such as Bud Biscardo and Judy Parkins and I am sure many, many others. With this kind of support, the NALC was again able to encourage our postal customers to help needy families in their communities.

We are especially appreciative of your request to United Way chief volunteers and executive officers to support the drive.

On behalf of our 300,000 members, and I am sure the millions of needy children and adults who will benefit from the food drive, we are very appreciative of your generosity. Please pass on our thanks to all at United Way who were involved in this effort.

Sincerely,

William H. Young

President

National Association of Letter Carriers

On a local note, Letter Carriers Branch #148 collected 47,000 pounds of food in Akron this year, and during the 15 years since this program began, have collected nearly 1 million pounds for our local food bank. Way to go!

Thanks to our friends at Main Street Gourmet

This uniquely Akron company celebrated their 20th anniversary with a wonderful celebration at Lock 3 on July 17, and all the proceeds are being donated to United Way of Summit County.

Our sincere thanks to owners Steve Marks and Harvey Nelson, and event co-chairs Melissa Mayberry and Nate Searls.

Enjoy some of the pictures from the event above.