The sound of music and the echo of applause filled downtown Raleigh streets Friday. At 5 p.m. a coalition of bands, vendors, charity organizations, city workers and citizens met at the Raleigh Amphitheater.
The Rise up Raleigh fundraising event was free to the public with performances by acts such as The Connells, Alissa Moreno and The Love Language.
Many people engaged in the event and enjoyed themselves with friends and family while listening to music. However, they came not just for the free entertainment, but to support a cause.
On April 16, a series of tornadoes ripped through Raleigh, devastating areas not too far from N.C. State. Immediately, groups like The Salvation Army of Wake County, Centro Internacional de Raleigh, The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Helping Hand Mission sprang into action supplying food and clothing to the families and people who lost their homes to the tornadoes.
“We had 13 trucks on the road every day serving hot meals,” Melissa Hartzell, chief development officer at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, said. “There are still 300 families without food or water.”
The City of Raleigh approached these organizations and proposed to get together and organize one event as both a morale booster and fundraiser.
“The City of Raleigh called up several organizations inquiring about an event and we submitted answers to them,” Hartzell said.
William Hinton, a volunteer for the Helping Hand Mission, worked for the community service organization both after the tornado and during the concert.
“When the tornado hit, we were out serving hot meals,” Hinton said. “We even had a transitional place that helped families.”
“On the day of the tornadoes, we showed up with truckloads of clothes and food,” John Faison, director of Centro Internacional de Raleigh, said. “Other people started coming out wanting to help as well.”
In addition to raising money, Rise Up Raleigh functioned off of money donated by both local and national organizations. The Carolina Hurricanes hockey team set up a booth along the street to show their support.
“We try to reach out as much as we can,” Josh Fountaine, intern for the Carolina Hurricanes, said. “We go to different community websites and try to reach out from there.”
Fountaine, a junior in sports management, said the sports team tries to focus on giving back to the community.
Lacie Lindstaedt, special events specialists for the United Way of the Great Triangle, said the city government can’t accept donated money, so the city contracted the nonprofit to collect donations.
“[The City of Raleigh] couldn’t take donations so they needed a company that could,” Lindstaedt said.
The United Way acted as the umbrella organization collecting donations from all the charities involved with the event and did the service free of charge.
“We usually have an overhead charge, but we waived all the fees here,” Lidstaedt said.
By the end of the night with about 4,000 attendees, the Rise Up Raleigh event was able to raise a total of $21,329 on its own, according to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle of Raleigh. An additional $25,000 was pledged via corporate sponsorship. However, the event still fell short of its goal of $100,000. Donations can be made until Thursday, June 10.
