Taste of Wayne is canceled
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on October 13, 2016 10:00 AM
For the first time in its 26 years, the Taste of Wayne County has been canceled.
"We canceled the 2016 Taste of Wayne because following Hurricane Matthew, a lot of our participants' personal home or business had suffered some sort of damage," said United Way community engagement manager Catherine Lechot.
"We have become inundated with calls here at United Way about how people can help. So we decided we'd like to focus on those efforts and give our restaurants and our sponsors time to get back on their feet and return to some sort of sense of normalcy."
Mrs. Lechot said all of this year's Taste sponsors have told United Way they are moving their sponsorship from the Taste of Wayne directly to the relief fund for Wayne County residents through United Way.
"It's staying local," Mrs. Lechot said. "We want to help those who need it the most who are here in Wayne County. A lot of the needs are still being assesses and damage is still being assessed because a lot of the county is still under water. We are using the funds to address the critical needs of Wayne County residents."
Dustin Bannister, United Way's strategic initiative director, said relief fund money will be used for community needs from Hurricane Matthew.
"The first thing, we've got to go from damage to recovery," he said. "Right now it's still in disaster mode. Once they can move over into a recovery mode, the needs will be assessed and the organizations that will help out will come together and say these are where the needs are and the money will be funneled to those organizations."
In the 26 years the Taste has been going on, it has had to be postponed only once. That was during 9-11.
"It was the last major disaster that struck around the time of the Taste," Mrs. Lechot said. But this is the first year it's had to actually be canceled.
"If you purchased tickets other than online, we are confirming with people that they are willing to move their ticket monies to the disaster relief fund," she said. "If you do not want your money put into the disaster relief fund, then you need to contact United Way so we can refund your money.
"I'm hoping people will remember that we were able to shift our focus to meet the needs of our residents. The Taste is a great time and it directly benefits United Way, but our helping to organize volunteers and recovery efforts is much more important than having the Taste currently.
"There's just not an end in sight to what's happening from the hurricane and that's why we also decided to cancel the Taste of Wayne."
The next Taste of Wayne County will be Oct. 14, 2017.