• By Todd Luck
• Posted Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Forsyth County Employees Raise $15,866 for Arts Council

Forsyth County employees raised $15,866.56 for the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County during a month-long campaign in May.

County employees contributed through pledging money, which often involved them setting an amount per paycheck to go to the non-profit. They also contributed through county-wide or department-wide fundraisers.

County departments created a variety of fundraising events. They included a hotdog cookout, sales of baked goods and other snacks, a wiffle ball home run derby, painting flower pots, a guitar raffle and tie-dyeing shirts.

The campaign ended with a finale at the County Government Center on May 31, which featured an art contest, vendors, food trucks and live performances.

“The County’s Arts Council campaign is one of the top, if not the top, most engaged workplace campaigns that we have seen in the county,” said Devon McKay, Arts Council VP of Development/Chief Development Officer. “The employees who volunteer raised $15,000 for our community’s art organizations and the schools, and best of all, they do it by having fun and educating their colleagues about the breadth and depth of the arts offerings in our community. We are so grateful to the special, hard-working people who make it happen every year.”

The Arts Council is the biggest driver of cultural investment in Forsyth County. The Arts Council collectively raises $2.5 million for the Community Fund for the Arts, which provides operational support to a broad range of partner arts organizations that provide 800,000 experiences a year, including music, visual art, theater, festivals, film and independent bookstores. Forsyth County is one of 54 workplace campaigns that help fund the Arts Council.

The Arts Council is one of only two organizations the county participates in fundraising campaigns for, the other being the United Way of Forsyth County.