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Black wins top fundraising honor
CLOVERDALE -- While exact figures were not immediately available, those at the Putnam County Youth Development Commission knew enough on Saturday to name the top fundraising dancers.
Nearly 700 people came out to C-Bar-C Expo Center in Clover-dale to not only watch some of Putnam County's "stars" compete, but to help support a good cause.
Before the event had even officially kicked off, PCYDC Executive Director Linda Merkel welcomed the crowd, noting that with nearly 400 people attending the event's dress rehearsal Thursday, they were able to collect nine, 30-gallon containers full of canned goods to be donated to the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry.
However, it was at the end of the evening that the big award was given out for the fundraiser extraordinaire.
Before announcing the 2014 winner, Merkel chose to reflect on prior years, noting that 2013 contestant Penny Long was able to raise a total $8,425.50 for the cause.
"She told me she wanted to hold that record for at least a year," Merkel said. "It's been a year and Penny, we're going to have to pass that torch. We're going to have to give three runner-up awards (Sam Fry, Rob York and Rachelle Custis) along with our fundraiser extraordinaire because it has been that competitive this year."
Exceeding his goal by nearly $70, the top fundraiser award of the night went to Dr. Brian Black, who was able to raise $10,069.25.
Black chose the goal of $10,000 after learning what the previous record had been and after doing so, he hit the ground running, calling everyone he knew to help raise the funds needed.
"I figured if somebody else did it, we were going to try to set the bar high and go after it." Black said. "I didn't sleep a lot. I worked very, very hard over the last six weeks to do everything I could."
Black not only is a hospice physician in Putnam and surrounding counties, but he is also the VP of Medical Affairs at Acute Medical Care as well the medical director of the Great Lakes Caring Hospice.
Finding the time to balance his work as well as time to practice his west coast swing dance with Sarah Bond along with fundraising, he credits his wife Alexandra for being so understanding.
"I have a wonderful supportive wife who allowed me to do a lot of things," Black explained. "I worked a lot of night shifts so I could make phone calls and visit people during the day and make time dance as well. I talked to everybody in my contact list, literally. I talked to every person I could think of. On my way to work, my commute, I made phone calls and on my way home I made phone calls and met with people.
"I offered to match some of the people, we tried to be creative in ways to put things together to make it worthwhile for people to donate both items and also make donations. So if somebody was close to a certain limit then I would try to kick in a little bit to get them to the next limit to meet them kind of halfway."
Black and his partner not only received a perfect score during their dance choreographed to Duffy's "Mercy," but it was earning the top fundraising honor that meant the most to him.
"It was fun to get to meet people and do something that you haven't done a lot of and just enjoy a different process," Black noted. "It was just fun to do. Fun to go out and dance and fun to go out and have the community involvement."
With solid numbers not readily available, Merkel hinted at the event being another huge success.
"I'm not the mathematician here, but somehow that seems to add up to over $20,000," Merkel said. "It's absolutely awesome."