Baker County YMCA wraps up successful fundraiser with local restaurants
By Joe Hathaway on Wednesday, February 7th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY — The Baker County YMCA recently concluded its annual fundraising campaign with a unique initiative that saw local restaurants contributing a portion of their profits to support the YMCA’s scholarship program for youth and kids.
The fundraiser, known as “Y Fridays,” is part of the YMCA’s annual campaign and involves partnering with local restaurants. “We typically do it once a year during our annual campaign,” said Koby Myer, CEO of the Baker County YMCA. “The local restaurants choose a percentage of their daily and nightly profits to donate back to the YMCA, specifically for our scholarship program supporting youth activities.”
For the most recent campaign, Myer said eight local restaurants helped raise approximately $3,000, a significant contribution, especially during the winter season in Baker.
The funds generated from the campaign go towards supporting scholarships for sports activities, ensuring that Baker City children can participate in sports, even if their families can’t afford to do so. “We use these funds to help support their scholarships so no one has to be turned away,” said Myer.
Myer expressed gratitude for the overwhelming response from the community, noting that all participating restaurants have expressed interest in continuing the initiative during the summer months.
“All of the restaurants this year have actually all requested that we do it again this summer, since they say they’re typically busier during that time of year,” said Myer. “So you’ll see us do it again, probably in June or July, but normally this is a once a year thing”.
This year marks the second consecutive year of the YMCA teaming up with local restaurants for the campaign, which Myer says has seen increased participation and success. Myer revealed plans for future campaigns, including reaching out to businesses for support through banner displays in the YMCA, with a goal of raising between $30,000 and $50,000.
Reflecting on the success of the recent campaign, Myer expressed his gratitude for community partners and their willingness to contribute. He said the Y wants to continue growing the campaign and highlighted the positive response received in person and on social media, with businesses expressing interest in participating in future campaigns.
“We’d love to have every local restaurant take part in Y Fridays, I think that’d be a great goal to have all our community partners take part in it,” said Myer. “We’re just super grateful to them because they have no idea the impact they make on the people and children in our community. I also want to give a big thanks to our Board of Directors for helping out with this campaign.”
