County Commissioners - public_hearing

All right, everyone, welcome. Appreciate y'all being here, sharing on behalf of your tourism grants. I just want to begin by stating the order and the way in which this will go is that you'll come to the table, you'll grab a seat. Please speak into the microphone as we are being live streamed. You'll state your name and then you'll have a three minute clock start. Eric will start a three minute clock for you. That'll be the time you have to just share a little bit about your application. Certainly, we know this is something you're very passionate about. You've put a lot of time, energy and effort into this. At the same time, we have hundreds of these to get through. So please be as concise as you possibly can. And then we'll ask any questions we have for clarity if we have any. But thank you all for being here. Again, it's a three minute limit, so try to be concise and we'll go ahead and get started. And sorry, what was the first one to start with? Justice. Well, let's start with the kid first, just because I'm sensitive to that as a parent, to give you a chance to get out. And then we will move to Justice House from there. So Macaroni Kid, Harrisburg, and West Shore Pia.

Thank you.

All right. Let's go. Ready? You ready? I'll just stick it on the desk here where everybody can kind of see it. Appreciate it. And I'm going to give you some nice handouts so that you don't have to listen to me talk.

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. If you have extras, you can give one to Sharon as well.

I do.

Thank you. My notes. Come on. You ready to get started? Good morning. My name is Rachel Bennion. I'm here with Macaroni Kid. And looking around, you may be wondering why someone is standing here with a little baby asking for a tourism grant. And a few years ago, I would have been asking the same thing. If you had told me that I'd be standing in front of the Dauphin County commissioners asking for funding to build a county-wide family fund zone, I would have laughed. Because this whole thing started with what can be described as a hold my baby moment. You know the expression hold my beer? Well, for me it was hold my baby. I'm going to plan a small Easter egg hunt. And it worked out exactly as well as you'd expect. At the time I was still new to Macaroni Kid and I thought I'd host a simple egg hunt for a few homeschool and cyber school families. maybe 20 kids. I intentionally planned it for a Thursday when kids would be in school. I opened up registration and within three hours, over 100 families had registered. Turns out it was the first Thursday of spring break. But something really beautiful happened. Volunteers showed up, families showed up, community partners showed up, and it turned into something beautiful. The next year, despite steady rain and freezing temperatures, 1500 people attended, including families who traveled from all across Pennsylvania. Along the way, we learned important lessons. First, you can never have enough eggs. Second, backup plans need backup plans. And third, families see Dauphin County as a place where they can gather, connect, and make memories together. This was about belonging. Last year, Macaroni Kid also partnered with the Pennsylvania Christmas and Gift Show, one of the region's largest tourism events, attracting approximately 35,000 visitors over five days. We created a family fun zone using equipment borrowed from my children's own playroom. Literally. I was loading toys into the van before the show and putting them back after. Families loved it, visitors loved it, families stayed longer, explored more of the show, and vendors benefited because the families were staying. I also got to know the vendors' kids. Many exhibitors travel as families, and throughout the week, our kid zone became a place where children could play, connect, and kids could be kids. The family fun zone wasn't just supporting visitors, it was supporting vendors who helped make these tourism events possible. And that's when I realized we'd kind of outgrown whatever fits in my garage. At the same time, my son Reese taught me another lesson. Reese is autistic. He's brilliant, funny, and experiences the world very differently than most people. And because of him, I started seeing events differently. I realized that inclusion is also treated as something extra, something that we add later if we have the time and the budget and the volunteers. But I want to reverse that. That's why one year ago, Macaroni Kid became one of the very first neurodivergent safe businesses through neurodiverse network.

You can wrap if you just got a couple seconds. Sure, sure.

So I'm asking for things like communication boards, inclusive sensory paths, STEAM activities, and resources that can be deployed again and again throughout events in Dauphin County.

Great. Where was your Easter egg hunt located?

First year, we had it over at Amazing Activity Center, which is over in Lower Paxton. We outgrew that. Second year, we had it over at the Vineyard at Hershey. We're hoping to move to the Farm Show or City Island, the two venues we're looking at for next year.

Okay. And I see in here infrastructure and equipment acquisition. Is this going to be like a permanent location that you're trying to set up, or is this more like a traveling?

This is a traveling, and it can be scaled up and down. Basically, there are multiple stations that exist, and so different partners can basically borrow the bubble zone or the inclusive sensory path.

Is the tourism like... I guess the tourism ask here from what I'm seeing on the application is that, um, you're in essence kind of providing a space for kids so that parents can better engage when they're tourists here locally for a variety of events. Is that a fair way of like kind of highlighting the tourism component of what you're, what you're doing? Like someone's in town, for example, I used to have three littles just like that. They're bigger now, but when we would go somewhere, obviously if they can be immersed in something for a while, I get a little bit of a break, more likely to engage in, what's happening locally. So is there a daycare component or am I with my kid the entire time?

You're with your kid. Okay. But there's actually kind of three tourism components. Okay. The first one being that families travel to events where they know they're accommodated. The second one is sort of that dwell time. And that's kind of how I calculated sort of the benefits to Dauphin County. The families at the Pia Christmas and Gift Show spent more time there. And we can prove that. We can show that. Families that spent more time there spent more money there. So that's sort of the kind of second piece. And the third piece is sort of the inclusion component, which we know brings people from far away. When you have inclusive activities and events, those are events that draw people and people travel for.

How much of your budget will be spent on marketing?

Zero.

Okay, that's my questions.

uh if i i think um we've had a day and a half of hearings um and i want to just make sure something's on tv for the record uh first of all there are so many outstanding ideas um and you know i want to i wish we were able to fund every single idea that was in front of us i just want to sort of put a scope and a range of what we're dealing with here we've got about close to nine and a half million dollars in requests Um, a little over 2Million dollars and being able to give out. So the idea that, you know, we are in a environment where there's limited resources and a whole lot of great opportunities to partner is something that I want to make sure everybody's aware of. So it's, you know, it's not like, um, if your idea is bad, that there's not going to be future opportunities to come and move forward. And also. I'm grateful that we have some innovation coming forward, especially for families. I also have 5 kids and the idea of figuring out how we can make families and include them and our children in those tourism opportunities. So, I just want to sort of level set for the folks in the audience, knowing that there's a significant amount of requests that are in front of us a limited amount of resources. but we are trying to figure out ways to be innovative and get the best kind of return for those dollars so i want to first of all thank you for recognizing both the sensory opportunities and activities i don't know how much time in the human service world and in the courts that we're talking about how do we make our environment's better for those individuals who have autism or on the spectrum or you know have some sort of um you know sensory challenges that we can not have this is a horrific experience already in a horrific situation and making sure you're planning for children in that kind of way is a great credit and i think you never go through any something unless you're able to now be a part of changing it in that environment for parents uh and i i like your ideas and i think they are genuinely um very creative and ways to be able to use communal assets um and and be a part of both helping families and tourism so it's exciting because it happens again and again these these are resources that can be used at event after event after events that occur year after year after year um so Great ideas, and she's been incredibly well-behaved. She's the best. She's definitely your angel and Christmas baby. I know if my little guy was here, he'd be doing head spins on the floor.

My 7-year-old would probably be trying to take your job right now. That's good. We need future leaders.

That's good.

I'd give him the mic. My question would be, I see that you have the recent family events, the Ever Bunny, the Longs Easter, the LP Independence Day celebration, the Christmas and gift show. Family Fun Zone, Inclusion Fest for Life Family Fun Zone. Would you look, would they be the recurring ones or are you looking to add on to those as well?

So that's not a comprehensive list. Those are just some of my larger events. She bonked her head, but it's okay.

She's not taking George's job today. Most of those events...

This is my third year for most of those events, and those will reoccur most of them. This is my first year with Relay for Life, so we'll see how that one goes, but the others are all... And then my Dolphin County Parks and Rec partnership is very strong, so I imagine that would continue year after year as well.

Are you a one-person show, or do you have other individuals working with you?

I have an assistant, but it's pretty much a one-person show.

thank you so much thank you very much gentlemen i'm going to run out yeah you're welcome tell my mom i said hello all right so we have justice house of hope up next and karma entertainment complex is on deck you need any help are you sure

Welcome. Good morning.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Justice Maddox. I'm the CEO and founder of Justice House of Hope, a survivor-led nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing human trafficking in this area, supporting survivors and educating communities throughout Pennsylvania. Today, I'm requesting your support for human trafficking and exploitation awareness training initiative for Dauphin County Tourism and Hospitality Center. Dauphin County welcomes 1,000 visitors each year through Harrisburg Hershey sporting events. concerts festivals conference hotel restaurants entertainment venues tourism is a major part of our local economy and ensures visitor safety in our community helping protect and strengthen the industry human trafficking is not just a problem in large cities human trafficking is everywhere traveling gather work together stays in hotels transportation clubs and venues and other public spaces are often places where warning signs may be the challenge in many people do not know how to report human trafficking or what human trafficking looks like or how they can get to the correct person that they need to this opportunity will allow a trauma-informed speaker to be able to train hotel staff, police officers, anyone that's involved in workers in tourism and hospitality in their community, partnerships with tourism, transportation providers, and other individuals in their community. And community stakeholders throughout Dauphin County participants will learn how to recognize indicator of sex trafficking, labor trafficking, sex gaming, runaways, exploitation of other children, exploitation of unsafety of the kids in their community. Today, Justice House of Hope work with at-risk youth who request this support training opportunity to educate not only the children, but also the people that comes to our Beautiful town, Dauphin County, educate materials, outreach and efforts and awareness campaign. Design specific for the tourism industries. These funds will help put frontline workers. Participate tools that can make a real difference in our community. Justice House, the hope is. Uniquely qualified to lead this effort as a survivor-led organization, we bring both lived experience, professionalism, expertise. Our team has provided prevention education and also worked with children and youth services to prevent human trafficking or to better help those that have been a victim of it. supporting service to schools, economy, community organizations, professional stakeholders across the region. This will help position Dauphin County as a leader, visitor safe and community awareness, will strengthen partnership, increase public awareness, and support safer and more innovative welcome environments for residents and visitors. On behalf of Justice House of Hope, we're asking for this funding and requesting that it might be an opportunity for us to be able to train everyone in our community. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, um, so the idea behind this grant is for. Hotels to buy in to to the trainings. Have you spoke with any hotel leaders to see if that's something that they're, they will, um, commit to.

We actually go out to hotels now educating the workers there.

Okay.

Um, also to the other. Facilities like running them when we speak to children. Have to see, we speak to different hotels, we speak to, um. Other entertainment vineyards that comes to our areas, we try to educate them. They see something, say something, how to get involved. But most important piece is how to do it safely.

Who does the training? You or others on your staff?

I'm one of them that do it, but there are two other staff members that also do the training as well.

Okay, the primary use of the grant would be to reimburse for training costs. I would assume then correct. Okay. Yeah, great. Thank you.

Just I appreciate all you do for. Survivors and those who have been traffic. Again, I'm trying to figure out the tourism aspect of this, and I know the training is very valuable. I know from the human service side. You are an essential partner, someone that based upon your lived experience. And what you've been able to do for this community is certainly. It cannot be measured the amount of education and help that you provided to those individuals and to the community related education. So.

um thank you for all you do and continue to look forward to future partners yep and george and continue what you just said i think this seems like it's more of a it should be a county provided service uh maybe with the human services in the district attorney's office i don't know from the vhh standpoint we have the president of vhh here sharon is how would you see envision this potentially working through tourism do you think it's more of a county service human services district attorney kind of thing

I don't necessarily see it as a as a good use of tourism grant dollars, but I think it's something that an organization, a destination marketing organization, such as us would sponsor something like this for our hotel partnership base, because it is a good human trafficking is something that's top of mind. It's something that's in a lot of our. seminars you know when we're out and about uh trade shows um it's a big conversation among short-term rentals um you know there's there's bills in the capital right now that actually directly speak to that so it's certainly something that you can make the indirect route to tourism for sure um so i i mean i would be interested to talk to you about sponsorships versus tourism dollars so could you two connect then absolutely okay thank you thank you so much

All right, next up we have Karma Entertainment Complex. On deck is Kent Brothers Charities.

I would just like to add, these mics are directional, so please speak into the microphone.

Yeah, if you didn't hear that from our IT, just for live streaming purposes, please speak into the microphone.

Buenos dias, Commissioner. We've seen you on a long time.

Buenos dias.

Hello, Buenos Dias. My name is Nelson Fernandez, General Manager of CARMA, the local LGBT entertainment complex. And thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to present to you what was Outfest 2025. Karma held Office 2025 from September 19th to September 21st at Karma Entertainment Complex to celebrate LGBTQ plus identity and driving economic activity. We combined entertainment, culture, live music, professional dancers, artists from other countries, celebrities in a way that hasn't been seen in this area operated by a LGBT organization and individuals. We experienced over 1,200 attendees over the course of these three days, not only from here, but also from Maryland, Ohio, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Washington, and North Carolina. We had the opportunity to secure local partnerships and connections, such as Visit Hershey in Harrisburg, who provided important support with marketing and promotion. Pennsylvania's The Great American Getaway featured their campaign called Sorry Not Sorry, providing on-site giveaways, engagement experiences, and exclusive interviews. Let me explain to you what this was exactly. On September 19th, which was the first day we had our reception involving the volunteers, community leaders, the artists, and everyone that pretty much was involved, which was an amazing opportunity for networking, relationship building, and media interaction. September 19th, we had our official first night with Latina and Rosé. We highlighted artistry. We had live music, bands, celebration of self-expression, and a luxury dinner with many people of our community, all dressed in pink. It was meaningful theme, and we also had circus entertainment. On September 20th, during the morning and afternoon, we had the Outfest party for families and people of all ages and children. We had an entertainment, multiple vendors, wellbeing activities, a pet parade, live music, live performers, and drag performers. During the night, we had our concert with famous celebrities, such as Los Angeles, sensation pop sensation Jordy, a Emmy winner drag queen called Manila Luzon from New York. We had a Netflix feature band, and we also had Lady Gaga's dancers from Chile doing an amazing experience show. And then we had closure on September 21st with our drag brunch. We had impersonations of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, and it was loved and very successful. I want to tell you really quick a little bit about our success. And when it comes to impressions, we had a billboards on the I-81 and I-83. We got over 1 million impressions. We also partnered with Comcast with TV ad campaigns. we pretty much want to do this again. Our community is special, is present, and we do believe that in moments that are so sensitive for us, especially during this political environment, that we say we're present, we're here, and we're not going anywhere. And we wanna be loud, and we wanna demonstrate, not only to ourselves, but also to our allies and further, that we can present amazing things, amazing entertainment, and drive economic growth to our city.

And furthermore, Commissioner, when I last year, September 4th, September 1st at Capona really, you know, took a took a toll on the attendance that we expected at this event. That was September 1st. Our event was scheduled less than two and a half weeks after that. We hope to have, you know, better security this year so that we can give attendees a peace of mind, you know, that we are ready should an incident happen. We expect approximately almost 2,000 attendees at this year's celebration versus the 1,200 that we had last year. We're happy to take any questions, and thank you, Sharon, for your continued partnership to this event.

Two questions. First, have you ever received any Harrisburg tours and money? I'm asking everybody that's Harrisburg-based.

It's a great question. We have not. We do plan to apply for those funds this year again.

How much of the request is marketing budget?

The request for marketing and the budget should be roughly around $35,000 to $37,000. Those are good questions.

Anyone else?

Looks like an outstanding event. You know, I'm looking forward to an invitation. So tell me what you're going to be doing differently besides security to try to help the tenants. Meg, do you think it's just really about the safety, or are you attempting any direct outreach and opportunities? Because this, again, based upon the photos and the events, it certainly is an event that folks will want to attend.

Yeah, I mean, last year, you know, Nelson brought in the international double for Lady Gaga from Chile. That was very, very, a huge attraction to the event. The Britney Spears double came in from Baltimore. Pillow Prince from Netflix from New York. And Manila Luzon. Las Vegas. So by having those dollars that are not marketing, Commissioner Douglas, it allows us to bring in really high level entertainment and cover their travel expenses for people to travel. We had visitors from six to seven different states listed on page one, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina and Ohio. And we hope that by bringing that high level entertainment again, To this region, we will have more LGBT allies and, you know, LGBT community members travel to Dauphin County and essentially put heads into beds. So you took my second question, who's the lineup for this year? We have not secured a lineup for this year until we secure dollars. I think you understand that we're living in a world where DEI is not appreciated or celebrated. So without these tourism dollars, this event would not be able to bring in a really big headliner.

Don't look at this corner, those tables.

Commissioner Priest, any questions? No, no questions. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. Thank you so much.

All right. Next up, we have Kent Brothers Charities. And on deck, we have Keystone Human Services.

Good morning. My name is Sean O'Toole. I'm an attorney here in Harrisburg. I'm here on behalf of my client, the Kent Brothers Charities. Kent Brothers Charities was formed in 2023 by Ronald and Dante Kent, the two Kent brothers, and their two other brothers grew up on Allison Hill. All four of them went to Harrisburg High School. Ronald and Dante are currently playing professional football right now. Ronald playing in the Canadian Football League with the BC Lions. Their season started two weeks ago, so he's in Vancouver at the moment, couldn't be here. Dante was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers two years ago, and the injury kept him from playing last year, but he had a commitment in Pittsburgh. So you're stuck with me, and I apologize for that, but I am grateful for this opportunity to present what I think is a very favorable application. uh like i said they formed in 2023 they've run a couple of uh football camps for here in the city of harrisburg and they've been trying to come up with a different concept they want to do something bigger than that and what they came up with was a traveling youth football tournament be held here in harrisburg over the last 20 years these traveling youth sports programs have become the rage and if you have Have any friends who children play for one of these, whether it's football, basketball, baseball, you know the commitment it takes. For two and a half, three months, they're committed every weekend to travel someplace, which takes a time and a money commitment. When I say travel, I mean, they're not going to Halifax to play. They're going to Cleveland and Carolinas. Places like that to play. And so what the Kemp brothers like to do is host tournaments such as that here in Harrisburg. The basic facts are anticipating 40 teams. It would be for ages 8 to 13. They anticipate it will be held in late March of 2027. The youth football program runs from February to April. So they anticipate having it in March of 2027. Their ideal location would be a CD East Middle School because you have to accommodate this many teams. You can't have one stadium hosting all the games. You need a location where you could have three or four fields going at the same time. They think CD East Middle School is ideal for that. They anticipate teams from District of Columbia, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland. And so if you just look at the math and the raw numbers, of the 40 teams, they anticipate maybe 30 to 32 of them will be traveling. And by that, I mean will be unable to return home after their first. It's going to be a weekend tournament. And each team will be guaranteed three games because that's only right. These teams are going to be traveling so far that they don't want to play one or two games and have to go home. So they're guaranteed three games, but that means they also have to spend the whole weekend here at Harrisburg. And so you've got about 30 of those teams will be traveling in such a way that they're going to have to use the hotels for the weekend. We're anticipating about each team have 25 to 30 players, five coaches. So that involves about 1,200 players. And you assume that each player is going to have two, two and a half, three fans with them. It gets up to 4,400 fans will come to Harrisburg for the weekend. And so, again, you look at the numbers, it's not out of the question that we're going to be utilizing 700 to 1,000 hotel rooms again.

Great. You'll direct your attendees to Dauphin County hotels, correct?

Oh, absolutely. And so when I come here next year, I should be able to tell you exactly how many numbers of hotel rooms were used.

Yeah, we would want that information. Certainly, we've been talking about tracking these trends and sharing what BHH can help with that.

Yeah, that should be an easy one to do because we'll be directing them there to get a good deal, and then we'll be able to track how many stayed at these hotels over the weekend.

i don't have any questions thanks for uh being here to present and sports marketing has proven to be a great return on investment so i hope so appreciate you and and sharon if i'm correct march would be like a it's like a shoulder season still so that's a time during the year that the main tourism Areas are not being utilized. So that's okay. It's a key timeline application. I'm sorry You mentioned youth sports and I agree my son did travel baseball travel hockey and there was just you were all in softball basketball as well and soccer these are the sports that are just out there just generating a ton of revenue uh for the host municipalities and something a certain work for us here be interesting to see how it's out there thanks thank you thank you so much all right next up we have keystone human services and latino connection is on deck good morning good morning

My name is Sarah. I am the Director of General Relations at Keystone Human Services. At Keystone Human Services, our mission is to create opportunities for growth and meaningful life choices so that all people can be valued contributing members of their community, no matter what their disabilities or economic stance may be. All of our programs and service areas all throughout Pennsylvania, and then even into Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and then international as well, are supported by our biggest fundraising event, which is our Chocolate Ball Gala held at the Hershey Lodge. This event brings together supporters, partners, and program participants for an evening of dinner, live event, silent auctions, live auctions this event also features opportunities for guests to connect with one another meet some susquehanna service dogs and learn more about the impact of what we do here in our communities our chocolate ball gala celebrates inclusion and advances the vision of a world where people with disabilities are fully included in all aspects of community of life and recognized as experts in their own lived experiences. Again, the proceeds from this event, including donations and sponsorships, provide the support of all our programs and services. This event attracts corporate sponsors, employees, individual donors, foundation supporters, and staff from all across Pennsylvania and neighboring states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and even into New York and other areas. The attendees travel to Hersey to participate and join us for that event. They bring in their coworkers, they bring in family, friends, and then just other visitors from the outside region visiting Dauphin County. This event is an annual event, so it contributes to the local tourism and economic activity. Many of the guests do stay at the Hershey Lodge or nearby hotels, and they take advantage of the local amenities while they're here. Some often explore breweries, restaurants, even Hershey Park or other local attractions. and that's generating additional spending and engagement with local businesses. And through these visits, this event helps draw new and returning visitors to the Hershey area each year, as this is an annual event and supporting the local hospitality and tourism economy. Last year, we had about 460 individuals that attended this event. um a percentage of them did stay at the lodge a percentage of them did stay in other local hotels in the area um so this event while supporting all of our programs and services provided here uh in dolphin county and the surrounding areas um does support mainly or does support dolphin county and the tourism and that's we are requesting support for this program this event to help again bring more people into the dolphin county area to attend our events and just supporting the local economy

Do you have any estimate on how many hotel states last year with your 460 attendees? How many stayed in hotels?

Just at the Hershey, just because Hershey Lodge, because that's the only one since we worked with them. We had 55 people stay there, but we do know a majority. large majority outside of that were either whether they were staff or just corporations that we work with foundations they did ask hey do you have a list of other hotels that we could look into and we do provide that as well especially in the Hershey area just around the lodge so they don't have to travel too far but we don't ask people straight up hey did you stay here but people do ask us where they can stay and we do provide that information

Of your 460, how many of them are like maybe 50 miles away from here? Is it a good portion that come from outside of our region or are most people in our region?

I would say it's probably 50-50. We do have a lot of local supporters that are in the central PA area that are Dauphin County, but corporations do invite people from outside of dolphin i myself am a staff member from new york so i travel up to dolphin county um i know a lot of my other staff members since we provide programs and services all throughout pennsylvania and then at the other states as well even just staff bring their family and friends um into the area for this event as well well thank you for what you do it's a great great uh great cause thank you

anyone else this keystone human service is one of our biggest provider partners in human services and i'm one of the local participants in the chocolate ball it's a great event annually and something that uh i know it's uh being in chocolate town pa and enjoying chocolate it's usually my week so mine too but but again the idea of trying to partner for hotel stays and driving marketing those are the things that i know focus on related to our decision making so while we appreciate all the things that you do um you know those are the sort of the guidelines with a credit process understandable and i appreciate you supporting the event and coming to it as well i will continue to thank you

Thank you so much. Next up Latino connection. And then following that Latino Hispanic American community center.

Yeah.

Hello, commissioners. My name is Ashley. I am from Color and Culture Latino Connection. I am the associate director of events and client services. I'm also the producer of one of our premier events. So we're here about Latino Ball. It's one of Pennsylvania's premier and highly anticipated Latino cultural celebrations during Latin Heritage Month. We welcome business leaders, healthcare organizations, elected officials, nonprofit partners, entrepreneurs, and community members from not only across the Commonwealth, but also from neighboring states, neighboring counties, and other countries for an evening of culture, networking, recognition, and entertainment. This is hosted annually, so we are on our 13th. This year, we're celebrating Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as a fusion to show connectivity and brotherhood between the two countries. Our Latino ball attendees, not only do they travel through Pennsylvania, but they also spend a lot while they're here. This event takes place on a Saturday. So generally they're coming in from Friday and leaving on a Saturday night or Sunday. Hotel accommodations, restaurant and dining purchases, transportation services, retail spending, entertainment venues after the ball, usually on a Sunday or Friday. and local attractions, all of which we recommend when they stay. A lot of out-of-towners are asking us for recommendations. We've even taken it upon ourselves to give them tours, mainly the entertainment that's coming from different countries and political and dignitaries that are coming from other countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Argentina, just to name a few. What we offer Latino Ball is a live cultural experience. I'm sure I think two of our commissioners have attended, so you guys are aware of it's not just a gala. It's an experience. We are paying attention to culinary. We're paying attention to talent, to the speakers we're inviting. It's community storytelling, and we're immersing our guests into another country. We're also recognizing Latino leadership and achievement across the Commonwealth. So our leaders are working tirelessly all year. This is an event that they can celebrate their accomplishments and be recognized for contributing to communities that they serve. So by hosting the event, the destination is showcased as a welcoming and inclusive city, culturally vibrant, business friendly, community centered. And also we work with the Hilton annually. And so people who are attending are also experiencing the Hilton's hospitality and also booking events at that venue as well. So generally, most of our guests stay at the Hilton, although they are staying at neighboring hotels. So I can tell you roughly between 50 and 60 hotel rooms are used. That's not just the people who are producing the event or the talent that we're inviting, but also people who are coming from out of town or out of country. We are attracting diverse audiences and we're also recommending different food places and restaurants and even other venues afterwards. So, yeah. Anything else to add, George?

The total budget production for this event, commissioners, is roughly around $200,000 a year. It's a very high class event with lots of details, lots of very high quality entertainment. um and it's a very anticipated event and i believe a few commissioners have attended in the past how many attendees total 400 roughly each year um this year we're trying to push for five which is the maximum at the hilton it's a top tier then no doubt that having been there last year it's definitely what was your favorite part about it commissioner douglas

I mean, the production value was very, very well done. Somebody who, you know, been to many concerts and been to many things like it was it was, you know, I don't know that I've been to the Hilton and seen that level of a production. So it was very well done. And as you said, it's very immersive. You know, you do everything you can to every single detail to make sure the attendees feel like they're there. I think for me, one of the things I know it's a ticketed event and I guess I want to consider how we might expand this to have more of a community benefit. And I don't mean it doesn't have a community benefit. I'm thinking about accessibility. Does that make sense to the public? And I think something on the level celebrating Latino culture the way it is, I think one of the things I would say for the future is like, is there a way we can broaden this to to allow more people to experience it. I think that would be something that I would really get behind.

So just something to think about.

We appreciate that challenge. I see the merits of it. How much of your budget goes to marketing? About 20 to 25.

20 to 25, okay. And I just want to note that we have in previous years given away tables as like a raffle and kind of like an engagement thing with some of our community partners. So we can do that again. That's not out of our reach.

Yeah, we actually have partnered with Dauphin County Human Services in the past, and we also work very closely with Ruby Daub on your team to help identify community partners and community organizations that have challenges with accessing those tickets. And then we also have a lot of corporate partners that, I mean, just a perfect example, Jefferson Health Plans is a Philadelphia-based health plan. They've been our title sponsor for this event for quite some time. They donate more than half of their tickets to local community leaders and non-profit leaders here in the area to make sure that they're not only building relationships while they're here, but also helping to overcome the accessibility hurdle. Commissioner Douglas, great question. Thank you so much.

I'm going to assume no on Harrisburg tourism money.

As of right now, the answer is no.

And I just want to be clear that that's not a reflection of you. It's just more, we get tourism money. Harrisburg city gets tourism money. We're trying to get it out into the community and we're trying to just see if any others who are applying for this have received those resources from them as their Harrisburg centered, you know, events. So, yeah.

yeah outstanding event look forward to it i'm liking the idea theme this year uh and i think you know commissioner doug's talk about the broad reach out when you talk about puerto rico and the dr and populations that exist here and off again actually glory america behind you partnering with those organizations and have folks pack that place because of the pride that exists and that symbiotic relationship uh within the latina community is a great uh a great approach I always look forward to it. Thank you.

And George, as you know, each year I get asked for tickets to this event. People are lining up already. They want to go. And there just aren't enough to be able to provide. Sharon can get you tickets. She knows people. Look. the reason that we're asking uh about the city's involvement we've done that multiple times now is a lot of these events are are within the city limits and the city does get tourism dollars in the amount of approximately 1.2 million dollars a year so we want to start partnering with them in the future uh so that we're not just the the bank for these events but we have to over 200 applicants and we can only provide X amount of money and we're gonna ask them to part partner with us in the future especially related events that are taking place in the city I'll be having my team thank you all so much for the time and energy that you're putting it to this it's really awesome to see you guys involved at this level thank you thank you yes thanks

All right, Latino, Hispanic, American community centers up next. On deck is Londonderry Township.

I'll give you these even though.

Thank you.

I'm good. I was there. You're all there. Good morning. My name's Gloria Vasquez-Merrick. I'm the Executive Director of the Latino Hispanic American Community Center of the Greater Harrisburg Region. In 2011, we started a festival. We started a block party, and we had about 400 people attend our block party. Today, that block party has expanded to become a wide community event. not only in Harrisburg, it's in Harrisburg, but attracting people from all over, from all the different cities in the surrounding area. We've expanded bringing guests in, even from Colonial Park, Lower Paxton Township, now Middletown, Stilton, and a lot of other areas. We see a great potential for expanding this festival and making it even larger. so as i said we had 400 people to start with last year in the last two years we've been holding at about three thousand three thousand individuals we have a hundred companies and corporations fortune 500 companies such as pepsi hershey company, and we also partnered last year with Explore Harrisburg, which we're very proud of, because I think they've seen the value in our festival. They've seen the expansion of our festival, and they see that it can attract tourism, and it can attract other individuals from other areas that don't frequent the festival to start to attend. So we do a lot of different things at our festival, and I know all of you have been to the festival quite a few times, but I wanted to mention a few things that we do at the event. It includes authentic Latin American cuisine, culinary showcases, It includes showcases of right now we're at 12 countries. We'd like to include more countries because the more countries we include, the more demographic our demographic expands. So I've been asked to, we included Ecuador, we included Venezuela and a lot of other countries last year. And we'd like to expand that. We also include folkloric dance and contemporary performances throughout the day. Artisans, I already mentioned about the 100 corporations and nonprofits as well. We have interactive cultural workshops. We bring them in from Philadelphia. We work with Los Pumperos de la Calle doing these cultural workshops for the community. And we also have Street Domino Pavilion, which is very popular. So we have contests as a part of the domino tour. And we provide trophies and so forth. We have a kids cultural zone we'd like to improve. We have some of the feedback we've gotten is they'd like to see us expanding the kids cultural zone and educational and fun activities. Because right now it is very, you know, more so adult focused. We do have media, digital marketing, PennLive. Some of our sponsors are in kind. Even though you see a lot of sponsors, it's in kind. Like they'll say, we're going to do digital marketing for you and some other kinds of things. So we're a tourism driver. We're trying to position the city as a vibrant, multicultural destination, attracting regional and out-of-state visitors while boosting hospitality, dining, and retail sectors. And I could go on, but my time is up.

What's the date this coming year?

It is on September the 12th. It's always the Saturday closest to the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. Hispanic Heritage Month starts September 15th. So the closest Saturday is September 12th. So it's been that for quite some time now. And I know you have your Jazz Fest, which is really nice because that's going to be a draw to our festival. And it's our festival is also going to be a draw to your event because people are already asking us, where can we get tickets for the Jazz Festival? since we're going to be in town that day and that's great and they always want to go to civil three top places they want to go civil war museum they want to go to hershey and they want to go to the senators games and you know baseball and all those kinds of things your event's free correct yes our event is free everything we do is free and that is why we are here how much is the marketing budget for this 750 dollars

$750.

$750. We do get some in-kind from PennLive. They're a $5,000 sponsor, but they give me all of that except for $1,000 in in-kind. So that digital marketing allows me to, when someone goes into a PennLive, to read a PennLive article right before a festival, a couple weeks before a festival, they will get a text message or a digital marketing message kind of a message that tells them, hey, don't forget to go to the Hispanic Heritage Festival. It's kind of like a pop-up. And so, yeah, and we know that if we had more money to do marketing and increase our production, we would definitely be able to even expand footprint a lot larger for our festival and still maintain it free.

Well, having been to the festival last year and seeing, I mean, you have a whole block, you know, multiple blocks blocked off to where you have vendors everywhere. I think it's a great example of community getting people out into a neighborhood they've maybe never been in. The food is amazing, obviously. You know, I would want to see a way that we can get that marketing budget up. I think work with maybe Sharon, I don't know, VHH, because it's such a great thing to highlight that's happening in the city. I just, I feel like, you know, obviously the in-kind contribution is great that PennLive's doing, but I think any way we can push that out there more, I would want to be. would want to get it on display because i'll be honest i was you know prior to being a commissioner i never knew this existed and i wish i would have and i think there's a lot of people that you know are out there that would want to attend something like this if they if they know about so just just just one note from me but uh certainly was a fabulous event to attend last year thank you i hope to be there again this year

I know you were there last year. I couldn't find you, but you were there. I know.

I usually attend every year. It's a phenomenal event, a great way to connect with the community. And Central Allison Hill is a gem for folks who don't go there for fear and not, you know, sort of the unknowingness. They miss out on incredible cultural experiences. Opportunity and for for that day, specifically a ton of community partners that support the Latino community that it's the largest bank, quickest growing community in our account. So great event worthwhile and sincerely appreciate the opportunity to participate over here. Thank you.

I think we're desensitizing people to, you know, to look at Allison Hill in a different light. And so I really, you know, I value that comment that makes, I think we're working on that and we're hitting that.

You always have big crowds, great food, music's awesome.

And I want to give- No shoots, food.

Food, yes, yes, yes, great food, yes. And then I want to give a free plug because I see it in here in the magazine, but John Hanks from Make It Happen Events assisted you throughout, accommodating your sponsors and vendors, handling event logistics, on-site coordination. Yes, he is our logistics coordinator. He does a wonderful job. Yes, he does. Keep up the great work.

And I pay him well. Big pancakes. We pay him well. But anyway, yes.

The food vendors are awesome.

Yeah, and, you know, the economy there, the restaurants, they look forward to it because they make more money. They make more money that day than they make, you know, in months. And so they want to be there. And all the restaurants, you know, they all open up for that day. It's their big moneymaker day. It's like Capone, you know.

It's a must-see event, a must-be-at event.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Gloria.

Thank you.

Next up is Londonderry Township, and then on deck is Lower Paxton Community Foundation.

Hi, good day. My name is Brian Marchuk. I am the finance director with Londonderry Township. So I'm representing the township on their behalf. So the township is offering two initiatives in 2026. The first one was already completed. It was the air show. uh so london dairy township has a little track of land a sunset golf course uh and uh we utilize that as a different viewing area for the uh for the air show the air show brings in about three thousand to four thousand uh just at the sunset over the uh the weekend it brings in about three thousand to four thousand uh individuals from all over uh when we uh reviewed our uh credit card uh uh software uh we determined that about 20 percent come from out of town uh we were able to see that uh did they stay in hotels uh not sure but uh there's tons of hotels along the 283 230 corridor um and uh that weekend tends to be a big weekend just because it's a nice weather The second event is actually a summer event. It's every Thursday evening. The township has a music event, Thursday night entertainment is what it's called. About 200 to 500 individuals come. You have a dance floor as well as a stage. It's actually very popular. You have a restaurant and food. I already said about the dancing. individuals come from all over uh it's not just uh in the uh in this in the municipality uh they also have friends family that come from uh from out of town and these events occur from june all the way through the uh end of august uh and they're each week um the events are free it doesn't require any sort of a mission or anything it's open to the public the public course uh all the uh the funds raised uh during the thursday entertainment and the uh the air show they're used to put back into the parks and recreation of the uh township as well so uh The events have been going on for years for the Thursday Night Entertainment. The air show is in its second year. The first year was extremely popular. This most recent year was even more popular. The tickets sold out actually very quickly. And we're going to actually expand the future to other viewing areas in the township with their other parks. They have other viewing angles. It's actually pretty amazing with the blue angels as they go over your head. I mean, you almost feel like you can touch them. I never experienced anything like that before until actually seeing it on site, and it was actually a very entertaining event, even though we weren't directly at the airport.

Any questions? The concert's held at Sunset Golf Course. Are they outdoors?

They are outdoors. That's correct. It's an outdoor stage and an outdoor dancing venue.

I mean, we know the value of the ship. Obviously, weather was a challenge this year, but outside of that, it's definitely becoming a staple.

Yeah, one of the days did get canceled, so we are reducing our ask from the application 60 and reduce it to 44 just because one of the days got canceled.

And what does the budget cover in your request? You said 44.

Yeah. So for the air show, it covers staff and labor. Also, any type of supplies, poor body rentals, food, merchandise for the club shop. For the Thursday night entertainment, it covers food, the employees, because we do have to have additional employees that night since it tends to be a little bit more popular. The staging. and advertising as well. The advertising budget that we're asking is about 15% of our ask.

You said you had ticket sales. How much revenue did you get?

For the air show only, not for the Thursday night, but for the air show only, we generated about $30,000. That's good for them. Yep, yep, exactly.

Don't have any questions.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. So.

Next up, we have the lower Paxton community foundation. You have 2 applications, so we can, we can receive each separately if that's what you prefer.

We'll run them together. That's okay. Give me a little kind of time.

That's fine. Eric, can you do a six-minute clock as they're going to run theirs together? And then on deck after hearing about these two applications will be Lower Swatera Township Police Department.

Whenever you're ready. Thank you, Commissioners. My name is John Hanks. I'm with the Lower Paxton Community Foundation, which is about 10 years old. We were founded following the 250th anniversary of the village of Linglestown, and then two years later, the 250th anniversary of the township. is always interesting trying to explain to people outside of pennsylvania the difference between a township and a village so many people have appreciated these community events that led to the creation of the foundation we have three main activities the first one is a recognition of a spirit of volunteerism award after polly murphy one of our founders the difference with this award and we've awarded a diverse group of over 40 people in the last several years is that it's folks that don't normally get recognized. So it's an opportunity to reach out and get people in the community that are doing the hard work that don't often get celebrated. our first event is uh july 4th uh commissioner hartwig you were at the event at heroes grove a number of years ago when you introduced the brand new citizens that led the pledge of allegiance and you know commissioner priest has been there as well this organ is the difference with our july 4th organ july 4th celebration is that this will be the fifth year we've been building up and are part and have been recognized as part of the america 250 pa celebration uh for uh for four years we've hosted this event which is a celebration of not only families but veterans as well the 10 o'clock program is a salute to the flags and has veterans from each of the wars we've have veterans all the way from world war ii up into the current conflict we also recognize out at heroes grove the first responders so fire police and ambulance as well as boy scouts and girl scouts interesting thing for this year with the america 250 scouts participating will be able to earn everything that day to receive their to america 250 badge as part of that celebration Following the ceremony is a small festival that we do. You heard from Rachel earlier with Macaroni Kids. We have partnered with her to provide different activities. We have eight local churches that are joining together to create a midway carnival. Everything, the activities are free, including face painting, kids crafts, balloon animals. It's really a great opportunity to celebrate not only America, but our local community. And we have our honorary chairman, Uncle Sam, to say a word.

I want all your support for this event. It brings lots of great stuff to the community. All the kids always come. They want pictures of me. They're happy. And they even say, dude, I want your photo. I'm like, I smile and happy. And plus, I have two kids myself, and they love going to events, and they just love all these communities that we do. And we'll leave it to you.

As I mentioned, we're recognized as an America 250 celebration, so we received that grant last year. The great thing about that is it's a matching grant program, so all of the sponsorship, including potential dollars from the tourism grant, is matched and doubled. So that's a great opportunity for us. Our second largest activity is the Christkindl Market. It's a German outdoor Christmas market held in Linglestown. We close down the street. It's packed. Everything is packed in between the two roundabouts. Over the last eight years, we have grown to be 100 handcrafted vendors, and we typically are sold out by April. And there's a large waiting list of people to get in. We have four stages of live music where we feature all local entertainment, including several high schools. We have a children's area, a living nativity presented by a dozen different churches. And most importantly, we have about 8,000 attendees at this event. We've been utilizing off-premise parking for a number of years. And while many do come from Lower Paxton, they come throughout Dauphin County, and most importantly, from Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic area. Here to speak just for a moment is our guest, Mrs. Claus.

Greetings from the North Pole. It's a pleasure to be here. Santa and I have been a part of the Chris Kindle Market since its inception nearly eight years ago. And we love coming to this purely because of the children and the community. You have no idea how touching it is to have these children come and sit on your lap, and tell you sometimes the saddest story you've ever heard not asking for anything for themselves but for a parent to be well it is touching we have full families that come with their pets for their christmas photo with the clauses it is such a wonderful community event and as a member of the community when i'm not portraying mrs claus i Love it. It tugs at my heartstrings. I have mementos, letters from children that I keep and I will never get rid of. It just makes my heart so happy to be a part of this organization.

I think the key to our success over the last eight years has been partnering with lots of organizations. The county has been supportive in the past for both of these events. We have partnerships with churches, historical societies, service organizations, and veterans post or Chris Kendall market. Last year we had more than 80 volunteers helping out. So I think that shows that the depth and breadth of the support amongst the community. We're a very modest budget. We provide 2 different events that highlight what a great place it is to live here in dolphin county. Not only do we have paid marketing, but the two people that you see as well as other volunteers are active in more than a dozen community events talking about both. We've been to National Light Out in the Handovers, Trunk Retreat in Swatera, Fresh Market in Hershey, and Egg Roll in Middletown, Diversity Fair in New Cumberland, and Representative both Kerwin and Fleming allow us to set up at their senior fairs. We really hope that you all three can join us on July 4th and really celebrate these two great community activities.

December 12th, too.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

I have no questions. You get the award for the best presentation. Best dressed, for sure. This is certainly thematic, and I thought I was only trying to get a chair for Mrs. Close because I know she had such a long trout.

Oh, I've been sitting patiently this morning, so I'm fine. Thank you for the offer, though.

But great presentation. Your events every year go off. I know our family enjoys both events, and not a whole lot I can say. They're well-run, coordinated, and you've got a lot of community buy-in from a great internal organization that I think does all they can to be able to promote it to our region.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I think the biggest thing to stress is two things. One, we really, on a very tight budget, we're able to put together a lot because we have partners that are providing the support of the township and Chris Kinnock Market is really invaluable.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next up is Lower Swatera Township Police Department. On deck is Lux Privy, if I'm saying that right. Sorry if I'm not. I got to eat. We'll see.

Good afternoon, Mr. Commissioners. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much for this. I know it's a lot of effort that is put into this to separate a lot of worthy organizations for this. So thank you for your time. So Lower Superior Township Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency located within the 14 square miles comprising the landmass of Lower Superior Township. The police department has a complement of 18 sworn officers serving a population of nearly 10,000 residents. We are a vibrant community that is a mix of residential, industrial, and commercial businesses. We sit centrally located near Hershey, Harrisburg International Airport, Penn State Harrisburg, and the surrounding areas that draw tourists to our area. The Lower Spadaria Township currently has five hotels within our jurisdiction. Over the past five years, these hotels have generated more than 1,000 calls for services. This grant would support proactive patrols in and around these locations, specifically requesting funding for a fully unmarked police vehicle that would allow officers to conduct surveillance and hotel interdiction activities discreetly, using a vehicle unlike any other within our fleet. Our intent is to be able to provide a more robust and proactive approach to policing in these areas. Through this grant, we seek to curb criminal activities that are prevalent in and around hotels so we can give our visitors to the area a sense of security. Our goal is to provide a quality service to these visitors so that they will want to return to our area and continue to support tourism in our township and as well as all of Dauphin County. The grant initiative will focus on supporting tourism by strengthening public safety efforts in and around local hotels and motels. These establishments are vital components of our tourism infrastructure, serving as a temporary home for thousands of visitors each year. As tourism in Dauphin County continues to grow, ensuring that these spaces remain safe and well managed has become increasingly complex and resource intensive. The funding will assist the department in maintaining rapid response times, proactive patrols, and targeting public safety efforts within high traffic lodging areas. Every tourist, whether visiting for a family vacation, a business trip, or a special event, deserves to feel safe. The ability to ensure a positive and secure experience is not only a public safety priority, but also central to the continued growth and the reputation of our region as a premier tourism destination. Investing in the safety of our lodging corridors directly supports tourism by providing peace of mind to visitors and reinforcing the confidence of hospitality partners who serve them as well. This grant represents a critical step in reinforcing the connection between public safety and tourism success in Dauphin County. If awarded the funds for this project, we will ensure that the public understands the tremendous assistance that the Dauphin County Tourism Grant has provided our taxpayers. Further, the Lower Superior Township Board of Commissioners has agreed to cover the additional costs between $6,000 and $10,000 for other equipment needed for this vehicle and to cover overtime details and support this endeavor. The Lower Superior Township Police Department is requesting this project be fully funded, and your consideration in defunding our project and supporting safe tourism in Lower Superior Township and all in Dauphin County is greatly appreciated.

i have no question i want to thank you first of all for waiting certainly all this time absolutely for your presentation all you do to protect the server i appreciate your time thank you so much commissioners i echo those comments commissioner harley thank you for all that you and your team members do keeping us safe 24 7 365. appreciate that thank you so much thank you thank you

Next up is Lux Privy, and then Likens Valley Children's Museum is on deck. Lux Privy. Sorry, sorry, I apologize.

Good morning. I will be speaking quickly. Email said we have five minutes, so forgive me for speaking quickly. Good morning. My name is Alana Kamak. I am the founder of Lux Privé, private luxury in French. We're an experiential brand that curates elevated events focused on high-level networking, community building, and creating meaningful opportunities for personal and professional growth. I'm requesting $20,000 in funding to support and and to support the execution and promotion of the Presence and Power Soiree, a curated networking and social experience that brings together professionals, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and ambitious individuals for an evening centered around meaningful connection and relationship building. Hosted at Rubicon, restaurant, or comparable Dauphin County venue, this event is designed to attract both local residents and visitors from outside the county. Attendees don't simply attend the event. They contribute to the local economy through dining, hospitality, transportation, shopping, and future visits to the area. One of the unique aspects of Luxe Privé is our ability to generate visibility for the venues, businesses, and destinations we partner with. Since October, I have grown a TikTok community of over 30,500 followers. Through my platform, I create content centered around access, positioning, and lifestyle experiences, regularly reaching tens of thousands of viewers. Just last week, I promoted an event taking place in Washington, D.C. The content generated over 300,000 views. The founder of that organization personally reached out to me to discuss future collaborations. This demonstrates my ability to not only host events, but also to generate awareness and interest around venues, destinations, and experiences. Lux Privé brings people into rooms, my content brings attention to those rooms, and together they create a tangible, valuable, They create tangible value for venues, businesses, and the communities we partner with. I have also demonstrated the demand for this model through our successful Lux Privé events, including our sports tier called Sweet Me Please, a Philadelphia Sixers luxury suite experience that brought together sports professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. This event generated more than $5,000 in revenue for our local hotel partner, The Canopy Philadelphia. Dauphin County has incredible venues, businesses, and talent. My vision is to create events that not only serve our residents, but also attract visitors from across Pennsylvania and neighboring regions. Our communities shouldn't have to look to Philadelphia, New York, or Washington, D.C. to experience elevation. We have opportunities to create those experiences right here, supporting local businesses, showcasing our venues, and positioning Dauphin County as a destination in its own right. With your support, I look forward to bringing the presence and power of Soiree to life and laying the foundation for future Lux Privé events that generate economic activity, attract new visitors, and highlight the very best of what we have to offer. My goal is simple, to create experiences that people want to visit Dauphin County more often, spend their money here, and return. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Is this the first annual of one of these?

It is, but I have different tiers of my brand. So Sweet Me Please, that is anything with sweets. We're doing something with the Eagles and Commanders actually in September for their home opener game. Soirees are more of our dinner experiences, high-level networking experiences, and I thought that would be more fitting for our area.

How much is marketing?

Marketing for this budget is 5,000. Ticketed event, correct? It will be, and it will be tiered depending on what the experience is that you want. We have a Lux tier and then a Premier tier, which is like our VIP tier.

So Ms. Campbell, where's your business located?

Well, I am from this area. We are located here, but given the luxury, um, marketing, yes, I do tend to, so I'm in Dallas. I host events in Dallas, um, DC. I'm partnering with a private yacht club and DC golf club in DC. actually tomorrow an nfl player actually reached out to me and i will be at his endowment fund tomorrow in new jersey supporting that so i get pulled into other people's events just based off of marketing for them for free so this is an event that i specifically want to bring here bring people into the city with my own personal connections in sports and entertainment

So as a part of like this role, getting to sort of envision folks like you and how you tie into the overall both sphere of tourism, but also partnering with other local events and things. We talked about hyping up a big basketball event, sort of like the Rucker in New York City. It sounds like you may have connections, marketing experience to be able to put something like that on there.

A hundred percent. I didn't know you could take gifts. I have Sixers gear in my trunk.

I heard you had baseballs. But are you related to Linda Kambach?

That is my cousin, yes.

Okay.

Anybody with the last name Kamek, I'm related to them.

Understood. And so, obviously, you're trying to establish sort of a high-end market. Correct. Here in Central Pennsylvania, and this is your first opportunity. Yes. I think about trying to put connections together and figure out ways to put those on the space.

And we do collaborate. I network a lot, and I tend to meet a lot of attorneys and lawyers that are in Harrisburg a lot. I tell them I'm from here, and they're like, oh, my gosh, yeah, I've... go to events here and they they support me in doing this so i could bring in a great elevated crowd to um help the the networking um i've gotten people career opportunities through luxe prive um we have some really great people come to our events front office people from certain sports teams things of that nature yeah um well i want to follow up with you see you know there's a connection the ability to make some

May not be appropriate for discussion tours.

Okay.

Thank you so much. We have lichens Valley children museum, and then a break. Here we will take a 11 minute break.

Can we come back at 12?

right i'm hearing 12 45 so we will take a 26 minute break All right, everybody, welcome. Just want to say, so for the way this is going, you'll come up to the table. Thank you for being here to present on behalf of your tourism grant. You'll come up to the table. You'll state your name. At the moment you state your name, a three-minute clock will start. You'll have three minutes to present, and then we'll ask questions. hopefully no more than two minutes of questions some have gone over we're asking that as condensed as you can be we know this is something that you've given a lot of time energy effort and thought to and it's you know your baby but we have hundreds of these to get through as i said we already had to push this back 15 minutes and really i don't even know that we got a lunch break as much as we got about a 15 20 minute break um so um we appreciate uh you being as condensed as you can in your answers and in your presentations and so with that What I will do is I'll announce who's up and then I'll announce who's on deck so that you can be prepared. All right. So next up, we have Market Square Concerts. And on deck, we have Marseco Sports Media. Is Market Square Concerts here? Okay, they are not. So we will move to Marseco Sports Media. And on deck is Martin Luther King Leadership Development Institute. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. All right, this is Wade Marsico. I'm with Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Basketball. dba um so uh first i'd like to uh thank you for uh giving us the opportunity we welcome the opportunity to uh present our program been in dolphin county here for 16 years running our awards programs and and events and uh thank you for uh we applaud you for having this uh public uh hearing so i'll give you a brief uh description of our project Mr. P.A. Football and Mr. and Miss P.A. Basketball, again, have been headquartered here in Dauphin County. We're seeking a 60,000 tourism grant from the county commissioners for the 2026 Dauphin County Tourism Grant Program. We adjusted the grant total amount requested from our original amount since we decided not to have the full fledged basketball words bank with this year. And we shifted the awards program to the new. Statewide all star event. So again, the scope and these resources, the Dauphin County would give us the support, allocate, go directly to fund the awards programs that we have in addition to the new All-Star Games. So I have Tom Miller here with me. He's the president and CEO of Neon Pathways, and he's our marketing expert. And we've been partnering and working with him for about 10 years. So he's going to also speak on our behalf here. Thank you.

Yeah, so I'm here. I'm a solo entrepreneur located here in Dauphin County, Lower Paxton Township. And like Wade said, we've been working together for about 10 years on these programs. I think just as a brief background, Mr. PA football covers the high school football across the state during the season, but it culminates with an awards program here in Dauphin County generally every March. So we bring in the finalists for the awards here in the county. We've used Milton Hershey High School as a venue for us for these programs. We have anywhere between 12 to 20 finalists and award winners that come in for these programs. It's open to the public, so you can buy tickets and attend, but they bring their families. Um, again, these, this is the, um, this is the. The most prominent award for high school football and basketball across the state. So, um, families will come in and even coaches and friends will come in to to the county there to see these award programs. With the All-Star Classic that Wade mentioned, this is the first year we've had it. It was held at Steele Tirespire High School this year in April. This is a larger event because we now have 50 to 60 players from across the state, boys and girls, top players that come here and participate in this All-Star Weekend event, which includes things like three-point contests and slam dunk contests and then the boys and girls games so um again not only are they bringing just their families but they're bringing from across the state many different uh other friends and coaches and things like that how many attendees at like last year's uh mr pfl for example I think we generally have up to 300.

Do you know how many, by chance, are from beyond 50 miles away, might be staying in a hotel, for example? Or do you track hotel stays?

We didn't track them in the past. We do believe that at least 50 to two-thirds, 50% to two-thirds of the attendees are from outside the region.

As far as the Mr. PA football, I'd say probably the majority of them are 50 miles out. I'd say even

Yeah, a lot from the Philly area, a lot from the Pittsburgh area. Great.

i attended the reward ceremony this year yes with our former deputy director of economic development it was a great event uh great to see uh the amount of people that were there um and i hear a lot of good things throughout the season the coverage you provide so i want to thank you for for doing that thank you assistance because sports is really really generating a lot of revenue

Throughout the county youth sports high school sports, etc Something we want to make sure we do have some plans for some new events coming up next year, but that's you know Not what we're discussing today, but we're excited about some some other events. We're going in Dauphin County Keep us posted Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Appreciate the time All right. Next up Martin Luther King Leadership Development Institute and on deck is melodies music professional services. I I'll take another one.

Good afternoon commissioners. My name is Merrick green. I'm the executive director of the leadership development Institute. And today I'm here to seek support for. 3 events that are happening here in central. The 1st event is the commemorative banquet. That traditionally takes place on the birthday of Dr. King. January 15th, and it always happens at the lodge in Hershey. So this is a partnership between the MLK Leadership Development Institute, Penn State, Penn State Harrisburg, and a couple of other local organizations. This will be the fifth annual MLK commemorative banquet that will hold this year in 2027. It attracts people from all outside of the central region. So, state college. Our guest speaker normally comes from outside the area. The previous last year we had. Uh, Mark, Mario, who's the president of the Urban League, a former mayor of New Orleans who came from New York City. On the previous year, we had Dr Michael Eric Dyson who attended. And traditionally, people do come in to see the guest speakers. This year, we're trying to shoot for Dr. Bernice King, Dr. King's daughter, but it's kind of a long shot, but we put the request in and we'll see what happens. The second event that we're seeking support for inside the same grant is the MLK Day of Service. And traditionally, that happens on the second Monday of the month. That event has been going on. This will be our 18th annual MLK Day of Service in Central PA, and we Basically, get people to come from around the region into central to support it. It is normally on that Monday morning starts early in the morning and goes into the afternoon this year. We are trying to do the event at the. A Scottish, right? Traditionally, we move the event around to different locations last year. We had it at St Paul's and Goodwin Memorial because they share a parking lot. But this year we're trying to do it at the Scottish, right? Because it is a central. a location with a big parking lot and a lot of space for people to do projects and for us to do our kickoff ceremony at the event and the final event is the mlk leadership development institute which commissioner hartwick talked about yesterday That started in 2009 that attracts people from all across the United States. Really? We've had students from Indiana, California. But more locally, we have students from Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh and from Philadelphia that will travel. To the graduation ceremony at the end of the course, the course goes from January to June. It's all virtual. The graduation is the one thing that's in person. This year we held, every year we held the graduation at HACC, but because of a partnership with Penn State Harrisburg, we'll probably host it at Penn State Harrisburg next year. So those are the three events that commemorate Dr. King in an order from January all the way till June that we're seeking funding. Do you have any questions?

Um, on the, uh, MLK days, sorry, on the MLK day of service.

Um, what are some of the, I know there's you deploy people out into the community to do things. And one of the things I know there's some beautification projects as part of that, right. I'm just trying to make the case for tourism here on these, because some of these are just really good for the community. And we're obviously trying to look through a tourism lens. Through the tourism lens, I would say there's a lot of beautification projects that take place over that day, correct?

Yes, they are. Weather permitting, because in the past, we've had some snow. And sometimes even when it snows, we put some of those projects on hold. And so it'll be an MLK project that happens later when the weather gets better. Yep.

Okay, what would be, if you had to make a case for tourism, obviously we know the communal benefit to all of this. I mean, this is really important work. What would be... You know, I'm guessing not a whole lot of hotel stays. Well, maybe for the leadership development, there might be some hotel stays when they come in.

Probably a few for the leadership development, just because we have like, you know, we host a couple of students, maybe two or three. But the majority that would happen for the day of service, because people do come in town that Sunday night for Monday morning. And also for the commemorative banquet, people normally come in for the banquet. And because the banquet happens at 7 p.m., they normally stay the night and then they leave the next day. Yeah. OK. All right.

Thank you, Merrick.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

Melody Music Professional Services. And on deck is Metros of Tomorrow Youth Academy. Thank you. You can leave one right there for Commissioner Hartwick.

Good morning, all, or good afternoon, all.

Good afternoon.

I'm Melody Tarpley, and I'm representing Melody's Music, Professional Services Incorporated, located In the dairy street on the dairy street, 3807, dairy street. I've been there now for 11 years. It is a credit to school of music. What we do is we're committed to providing individual music instruction. To children and adults, age, 5 years to senior age. The school's mission is based upon the concept that arts and music development should be accessible regardless of one's physical or intellectual abilities. One of the things that we've established is a contractual arrangement with the Department of Public Welfare to teach developmentally challenge individuals how to play music, perform music, and how to record music as well. Melodies Music Professional Services provides an inclusive creative music instructional program that specializes in instruments and vocal instructions as well as recording instructions. for children and adults. This small unique school located 3807 Derry Street also provides music instruction and recording instruction as well to children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Each year, Melodies Music Professional Services conducts a recital, several recitals, three in fact, in a local church. We've also had it at Reservoir Park Band Shell. We've had the recital at City Island. And we do this every year for a community center that showcases Dauphin County community upcoming talents. Additionally, when our community started, our schools break for the summer months. My instruction continues at Melody's Music by conducting a summer camp for the months of June, July, and August for the children. Melody's Music is requesting funds to conduct the following. The purchases of new musical instruments and equipment for its current returning and new students. And the school would like to also, which we have already established, a loaner program for the students. So this program was designed for students to check out instruments and that will allow them to practice music instructions while at home. Also to enhance the summer music camp program by providing musical education field trips that will allow students to tour and experience musical museums, which allowed them to participate in musical productions as well. We've taken field trips to a program called NAMM. That is a program that that constitutes musical arrangements, production facilitations, and recording engineering. So those are some of the things that we do at Melodies Music, and we are requesting funds to help consider to facilitate that program, these programs. Thank you so much, sir.

Yeah. Thank you, Melody. Um, can I, so I'm a musician myself. I grew up as a kid and, and was trained by, or, you know, took classes and something very similar, a hole in the wall, little music place in the sense of like, not, not that I'm saying that's what you are, but I'm saying like, community-based space that helped teach me how to play guitar curious so I see the benefit value in what you're doing it's really important absolutely as these are tourism dollars what's your case for tourism dollars as tourism dollars are really supposed to be driving people into our region that are outside of our region what aspect of what melodies music does Drives people to our region from outside of our region.

Well, 1 of the things that we provide a service also. Because we also have a full fledged music studio that had actually partnerships with us in terms of allowing us to facilitate their internships. now in in that regards we get a lot of calls from different bands and different professional artists that come to the area and they need practice space to practice they come to our facility to do just that and that in in itself allows a lot of people to gravitate to our our our facility

Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Next up is Metros of Tomorrow Youth Academy. And then on deck is Middletown Area Historical Society of Dolphin County.

How are you doing today? Good. How are you? I'm Brian Mathis from Metro's Old Tomorrow Youth Borough Academy and Metro Borough Academy. I'm a graduate of National School of the Federal Department of Education. So I'm presenting to the commissioners and the tourism grant to, this is my first time for this event. It's called Capital City Barber Battle. And it's a cultural experience. It's in Harrisburg, PA, you know, around Saturday, August the 20th. And the project summary is a Capital City Barber Battle cultural experience. It's a one-day event designed to attract regional, and out-of-town visitors to a high-energy barber competition, live entertainment, vendors, and culture engagement. The event will showcase talent while driving tourism, increasing local spending, and supporting small businesses. The event details is a Harrisburg, PA venue. The Rose Lerman Art Center had estimated attendance is 150 to 300 attendees. Out of town visitors is 30 to 40%. Event duration is one day. And just to prepare for the event, it's three to four months before the event. Secure venue, begin marketing campaign, confirm vendors and sponsors. Two months before the event, open ticket sales, confirm barber competitors, increase social media promotions. Warm up for the finalize event logistics, push marketing heavily. And then also pushing marketing through a national. School as well as, you know, this continuous enrollments, you know, we have 4545 students are rolling in my Barbara Academy every 4 weeks. You know, just. And now that schools out from the Harrisburg school districts in the surrounding areas, they have opportunities to enter, you know, students, new students that's coming to Barber School, they have opportunities to enter into the event as well. Plus schools in Lancaster County, York County that I'm connected with as well. Philadelphia. Have schools and things that I'm connected because they're all national credit schools. And that brings that attraction to, you know, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And we have a lot of college and barbers in the local area. And so we'll push marketing heavily. And then event days is set up competition, performances, vendor engagement. Post event is breakdown economic impact reporting. Marketing plan is social media advertising through the schools. Barber industry outreach. Flyers, posters in nearby cities. And partnerships with local influences and barbershops. Regional promotion targeting nearby counties and states. And then the event budget estimated was the venues $800, marketing $2,000, equipment set up $1,800, talent and entertainment $1,500, staff and security $700, visitors experience enhancements $500, entertainment $1,500, and administrative coordinator $200, and total grant on the expenses $7,500.

Thank you so much. A couple questions. Local barbers, mostly?

Well, it'll be local barbers or belt barbers from Lancaster, York, you know, just in the surrounding areas.

Is the idea that there would be a champion at the end of the day?

Oh, yeah, that'd be first, second, third place.

I mean, that's a cool concept to have, like, the best barber in the capital city or something like that.

I mean, you know, just bring in different visitors, like ambassadors that I'm connected with, and it's clippers, wall clippers. You know, I'm connected with those ambassadors for those clipper companies. So there'll be the judges coming in, you know, to judge, you know, the capital city barber shop.

A bunch of people are going to get haircuts that day, you know?

Hey, free haircuts. It's an opportunity for free haircuts. You know, vendors will be there with clipper supplies. You know, everybody needs their hair done. Everybody needs their image. You know, we're the people. We're the ones that support that every day.

I mean, I like the concept from the standpoint of potentially supporting small business in the sense of if I win, I'm able to market off of that. I'm able to market that I, you know, this competition. And so you're probably going to get a lot of barbers to buy into it. My only request would be, is there is there a way to in your inaugural, you know, competition? Like, are you still going to be able to operate off this? Like was said earlier, I think we've had $9 million in requests, and I think we only have just a little over $2 million to award. If you were to get half of this request or a portion of this request, are you going to still be able to make this, you know, something you can build off of, hopefully, like something that can happen and you can build off of?

I mean, in this industry, you make things happen, you know, especially in this barber and calligraphy industry.

Two things one you didn't bring this up this time, but we've been asking folks when this is within the city Harris. Yeah, correct. Did you contact the city at all about sponsorship or grant money for tourism? Not at the moment.

Okay.

Because we are hoping to work with them in the future and collaborative effort because they get 1.2 billion. And there's a lot of applicants out of the 200 and some. a good-sized, I'd say maybe even half of them, that are within the city of Harrisburg confines, and no one's going to the city asking them for funds. They're all coming to the county. So there are monies available there, too. We'll work with them in the future. But you mentioned anybody can get a haircut? Anybody. You think anybody can fix this? Whoever can fix this is the champ. The champ.

Well, we got cordless clippers now. So, I mean, we just did the arts festival on the riverfront. You know, we're all over the city just doing haircuts and stuff.

All right. Thank you so much.

Appreciate you. Thank you.

All right. We have Middletown Area Historical Society of Dauphin County. On deck is Millersburg Area Senior Center. How are you? Thank you.

My name is Jenny Miller. I am the vice president and co-chair at the Middletown Area Historical Society. On Saturday, we held our 51st annual craft fair. We had fabulous weather. We had over 4,000 visitors. And we had 148 craft vendors that attended that day. And out of those, 25 came from the Middletown zip code. The remainder came from 61 different locations across Pennsylvania and three different states being Maryland, Georgia, and New Hampshire. And we also had a food vendor that came from New Jersey. So we cover quite a large area. As far as where we, you know, people coming and going, I know some of the attendees come back to this area just for about their weekend. So we have three buildings that we maintain. one which is on the national historic registry and we have a museum a brick and mortar building in our case it's logged and chinking but it's on main street and that is what our profit goes for is to maintain those buildings and keep the artifacts and the museum going we we had this we've had this I lost my thought. Our fair was actually set by a council resolution in 1974 for it to start in 76 to commemorate the bicentennial.

been to this event many times thousands of people attend as you mentioned there's hundreds of vendors over 140 some vendors including many outside the state uh that coming forward it's a must-see event and clearly uh fits many many of the of the checklist uh for tourism and what it's supposed to be utilized for here off the cap so thank you

I also want to note just from going through the brochure you handed us, seems like you have a lot of corporate sponsors. Yeah, that's good. It's good to see.

We do. And, you know, we appreciate every one of them. And we do try to we try to just make this. We have one other fundraiser out of the year. And we're an all-volunteer organization, so we can only ask people every so often to give up time and help us out. So the fair is the big thing.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, next up, Millersburg Area Senior Center, and then we have Millersburg Area Working Together.

Third time's a charm. Yeah. It's great, right? I'm here on behalf of the Millersburg Area Senior Center, who serve over 100 seniors every single day, age 15 up. It's a free program. Well, it's a membership of $10 a year, so it's not exactly free. But we alleviate to the Senior Center a lot of burden off the county. It's the only one of its kind in northern Dauphin County that's open five days a week. And it does a lot with Meals on Wheels heavily sponsored. Depends on volunteers and grants to keep it going on a shoestring budget of maybe $100,000 close to that per year. Our request is for some beautification because they just don't have the budget for it to do some curb appeal, mulch, flowers, and some interior exterior painting. We do appreciate your past support too through the gaming grant for getting the power doors and renovations for the restrooms for our seniors. The center keeps them independent longer. A lot of them, they don't have a lot of family or their families from out of town. That's kind of the tourism aspect. They do have a lot of family that come in from out of town. They have a lot of events, bingo and fundraisers and things like that to keep the senior center thriving and functioning. So that's our request for that one.

No questions.

No.

Okay. Thank you.

next up is uh millersburg area working together and then the millersburg uh borough good afternoon you can leave one for commissioner hart as well oh also if you have an extra one sharon or eric will take one too

good afternoon my name is alexis campisi i am a board member for millersburg area working together and we are requesting ten thousand dollars in funding to support our cherry blossom festival we just had our 37th annual cherry blossom festival so this is a long-standing event in our community it's one that is very important to our community we actually our mawt's mission is working to enhance the support of local businesses to attract local tourism to our area to add more local events for our community and to improve community welfare so with this event we have this year we had over 120 vendors attend this event we do market to harrisburg area as well as across pennsylvania we do bring in thousands and thousands of people to this event Um, in the handout that I gave you, it does show kind of the layout of the event. How many vendors are in the different streets? We do also work with local businesses to help promote them during the event. We are bringing businesses throughout Pennsylvania, but we definitely want to support local businesses as well. So we collaborate with local businesses. Um. We. really love that we do this event in the middle of the borough. So with our downtown district, we actually just recently redid our gazebo. Hopefully you guys had a chance to see that because we had utilized grant money for that project as well. We just feel that it's important to showcase our downtown, support our local businesses, support businesses throughout Pennsylvania. And this event is an event that's just extremely special to our community.

Do you work with VHH at all to promote?

We have not actually worked with them.

I think this would be something that could be really cool to work with. I would love that. You should connect with Sharon about that. I mean, I just think when we try to think about how we get people into the northern end more frequently, I think this is one of those events that might kind of break a barrier, like something like this.

Yeah, I would definitely love information on that. We actually have a lot of different initiatives in our organization. So we do a community market, we do a holiday event, and we also partner to do music in the park now. So with us doing so much in the community, we do need extra support to continue growing the Cherry Blossom Festival. Each year we have been growing it bigger and bigger.

I hear good things. I haven't been able to attend myself. Yeah, I hear it. No other question. All right. Make sure to connect with sharing good information.

Thanks, guys.

Next up, we have Millersburg Borough. They're presenting for two different, I believe, from what I'm seeing, it looks like two. And then after that will be Millersburg Ferry Boat Association. I don't know if you want to present your two together at the same time. If that's possible, that would be very helpful for time purposes. But yeah.

Well, thank you, gentlemen, for your time. Lots of Millersburg applications. These tourist events or tourism related events are definitely a lifeline for a small account so my name is james i'm the borough manager at you both individually we are applying for two grants most bars are related to actually both of them are related to special events like the cherry blossom festival uh the christmas tree lighting which is now holiday magic hosted by mawt our fireworks event In July, these events draw about 6,000 to 7,000 people, which is three times the population of the borough. So our public safety entities are pretty taxed. Two police officers, three public works personnel, and we bring in a lot of outside help from constables, fire police. We have to pay them $30 an hour to help keep things under control, private security. just to kind of keep everything safe. We've also been purchasing concrete barriers to set up our barricades and heavy street festivals to help protect from behavioral threats. So all of our tourism grants are for operational support for these events. It costs about $1,500 for one event just for Public Works, $1,500 per event average for police coverage, $85 each for concrete barricades and $2,500 for traffic control for a 12-hour event. It's a long time. Like I said, these events draw a regional crowd. A lot of people come from out of state for these things. They've either moved away and come back because they love it so much or they've visited on passing through to State College and they just want to come back. Again, the tourism boost to the community, it's like a lifeline for these businesses.

just so i'm seeing this right you there's two requests both for one thousand five yes okay thank you modest request obviously these are uh we hear about these events they're good events so thank you for coming and presenting on behalf of them any other questions we try to keep the requests low uh we want to support uh millersburg area working together um senior center you know there's a lot of requests coming from town

those organizations do a lot of boots on the ground.

Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next up is the Millersburg Ferry Boat Association. On deck is Moon Peak Productions.

And we're back. All right. As you know, the Millersburg Ferry Boat Association is an amazing part of history. It's the only wooden stern ferry boat, commuter ferry boats on the entire stretch of the Susquehanna River, which is 445 miles long. Our request, obviously, is beautification. Thank you so much for your previous support because we are up 35% in attendance on ferry boats. So when we used to, just five years ago, had about 2,800 passengers, we now have over 4,000 to our little town of Millersburg. We have people come from all over, not just all over the country, but all over the world. Every season we have at least a few ferry boat goers that come from other countries that were intrigued by the ferry boats. So our request is for gravel, and that's for both docking areas, one in Millersburg, one in Liverpool, for 50 tons because the gravel obviously wears away with the boats coming in and out. And we haven't done that in several years, and that's our immediate need for that.

No questions for me. I've been on the ferry. It's good.

Didn't we have a question yesterday regarding a boat tour?

Yeah, there was like a boat. He said there was a boat crawl or something like that.

Was it the Pride?

That was the Pride of Susquehanna. It said there were going to be like different stops, but I don't think they mentioned Millersburg. They should. Sunbury.

Okay.

Y'all should get in on that.

Yeah, we have started a ton of events last summer, so we do have a couple river rambles and pirate cruises now for kids and paint nights and things. So we have actually a chef coming on board last summer for two of our boats, Chef Louie, who's actually in the area, but he used to be a chef for several presidents of the United States. So it's pretty neat. So yeah, we're really being able to use this money very resourcefully, and it's definitely generating more tourism dollars to the community as well. Yeah, that'd be wonderful. Sure.

Thank you. Next up is Moon Peak Productions and Motorama is on deck.

Good afternoon. My name is Danny McCoy. I'm here representing Moon Peak Productions as our general manager, director of events, and director of marketing. Since partnering with Appalachian Brewing Company in early 2024, we have worked tirelessly to revitalize the Abbey Bar, a beloved historic concert venue on Cameron Street in Harrisburg. In those two and a half years, we have put on 140 concerts, drawing over 12,000 people into the city. Last year alone, we had 4,500 ticket buyers, and approximately 98% of them came from outside of Dauphin County, from as many as 28 different states. These people ate at restaurants, stayed in hotels, paid for parking, etc. Our conservative estimate of the direct economic impact would be approximately $155,000 spent in Dauphin County, and I'm proud to say that we're on track to double our ticket sales this year from last year. Moon Peaks events fall squarely within the eligible activities of marketing and tourism enhancement. We're seeking the grant to help fund our growing event marketing budgets, performer compensation, as well as equipment rental and repairs. If we receive the said funding, it would allow us to consistently bring in larger artists and more effectively market them using things like digital billboards, print advertising, wider ranging internet marketing, um our team will ensure the grant funds are managed effectively filing a comprehensive report tracking every dollar spent we don't take the financial support of dolphin county lightly The beautiful thing about this grant's funding, that it comes from the hotel room rental tax, is that our company's success directly contributes to it as our business model revolves around attracting people to come here and stay in our hotels. And with your support, we aren't just creating local events, we're creating a regional and national awareness of Dauphin County as a true hotspot for live entertainment. Transparency and fiscal responsibility are at the heart of our operation with a budget of about $50,000 to be spent between marketing and artist payments this year. We're requesting $12,500 in grant funds to help support that. This money would be instrumental in allowing us to grow our operation and in turn allowing the arts and entertainment industry of Dauphin County to grow as well. While we have conservatively estimated $155,000 to be spent by concertgoers while visiting, we also support 10 full and part-time employees at the venue, a number we expect to grow as we expand the amount of events we host. Yeah, Moon Peak Productions is ready to execute a year of events that satisfies grant requirements and also serves as a catalyst for economic growth in Dauphin County. Yeah. Thank you for your time.

How much of the 12.5 request will be used for marketing?

About 20% marketing, 80% artist payments. Okay.

um you had said i think something like 90 of your audience is coming out of county 98 98 yeah wow okay how are you tracking those just through like ticketmaster through ticket sales ticketing provider we use big fan of live music and i know you guys kind of get not necessarily like a little smaller market and like some, some of the other ones, but some of them are like niche bands that people will travel for from Philly and other places. So, yeah, I mean, uh, and it's good to see the Abbey bar back up and live music. So appreciate your commitment to the region, to live music. Uh, that's the extent of my question.

Currently only at the Abbey bar.

Yeah.

All right, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Motorama. On deck is Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art.

Good afternoon, all. My name is Andy Goodman, Executive Director of Motorama Productions. Since its humble beginnings at the Harrisburg Indoor Motorcycle Championship in 1978, Motorama races and shows has evolved into one of the nation's premier indoor motorsports events. Now approaching its 49th year in Dauphin County, Motorama has become a cherished annual tradition that attracts generations of families from across the country. A baseline study was done in 2013 by the Pennsylvania State University Center for Economic and Community Development. I'm leaning on those numbers today to show you where the show has gone. The Pennsylvania State Economic Impact Study showed a 1.32 million direct visitor, exhibitor, and vendor spend nearly two million in total economic activity. Why point that out? Because we're now in 2026. where today the impact is much larger. The Penn State study was conducted when Motorama attendance was approximately 25,000 visitors. Today, Motorama exceeds a footprint of 50,000 between participants and spectators, effectively doubling the event audience over the last 13 years. While no updated independent economic study has been released publicly, it is reasonable to conduct that Motorama's current economic contribution is substantially greater than the original two million estimated for 2013. Increased attendance, growth in vendor participation, expanded racing and exhibitors, higher hotel, food, and transportation costs compared to the study period. While Motorama Racing and Shows is a private, family-owned and operated event, there has been no third-party economic impact study. But I did lean on AI to create and replicate from several formats what it would look like today to bring a realistic and comprehensive study to put in front of you this afternoon. Estimated 25 impact to Dauphin County generated by several AI report shows that hotel revenue estimated around 2 to 3.5 million. Restaurant and food spending, 1.5 to 2.5. Retail, fuel, and entertainment, $1 to $2 million. Event-related purchases, $2 to $4 million. Local transportation services, half a million to $1 million. A total direct spending of $7 to $13 million. Why the Dauphin County Commissioners should support Motorama races and shows with tourism grant funding. Motorama races and shows is far more than a motorsports event. It's one of the largest tourism drivers held annually in Dauphin County. It creates significant economic impact. Filling hotel rooms during the winter season, a time when tourism is slow, we're filling our hotels 60% to 80%, eight of the nine which are right here in Dolphin County. The national exposure to Dolphin County, the advertising and marketing that is national throughout Motorama's promotional period, November through February, the third weekend. Support local businesses. This event creates business for restaurants, convenience stores, shopping centers, gas stations, attractions, and entertainment venues. I will give you a copy since we ran out of time, but I have a very comprehensive paper here with documentation adding to what I've been speaking about.

Can I ask, of this 62 plus that you requested, how much is for marketing?

Marketing is about half. Yeah, we are bringing in the Fast and the Furious movie franchise. We are bringing in some of the actors and trailering in some of the vehicles.

How do you track the data? I understand using AI, but what you provide AI is going to help give you the stuff. Correct.

The AI reports, I ran several reports to show based on 13 recorded records what it would look like shaping what we're doing right now. We also have records based from our data system, which is our registration platform, WebConnects.

can see where every attendee is coming from every purchase ticket is coming from that helps us as well and be able to control and understand where our numbers are would you say most of your audience is and i've been to your event by the way it's a very well run event um would you say most your audience is local or beyond 50 miles i'm going to say about 30 percent is beyond 50 30 percent

and you're located at the farm show yes this event happens sharon was she ran the farm show very closely with her for many years uh how would you rank them uh from i know the great american outdoor shows the largest in the world and we have farm show uh we have how are they right the top end throughout the year yeah probably top six top six

Thank you. I have no more questions. Thank you so much.

And if you want to leave that with us, you're welcome to three minutes.

That's okay. You're fine. We'll catch up on the reading. You can leave one here for commissioner. All right. Next up is Ned Smith center for nature and art and on deck is neuro diverse network Inc. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Christina Heinzelman, and I am the grant coordinator for the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Arts. This year, we're asking for something different from the commissioners, and it's for our TROBE's rugged 5K trail run, which will take effect on September the 19th. We've been doing this trail run every year since 2012. The participants can choose between the rugged trail run, the hop back trail run. We have seven age groups, so anyone from age nine all the way to 60 plus can be in an age group for running. We are anticipating at least 200 runners this year with probably attendees of over 450 people. Every year we do this, it's a partnership with Tropes Independent Brewing. And they create a specialty beer for the event, which I know helps them also in their marketing. One of the things this year is we are partnering with the Northern Dauphin County YMCA, who are bringing an inflatable obstacle course for kids along. And they will also have an information and educational outreach table. This turns into an event that goes into the evening because after the racers come back and then they're allowed to have their beer. We also will be featuring Deep Space 90s, which is a band and they will be playing. We think that what we're doing with this, we have people coming in from a multi-county area and also as this run gets better known, we do attract people from other places close by Pennsylvania, but not quite in Pennsylvania. So we know we have dining at the local restaurants, people are purchasing fuel and supplies and visiting the shops that are located in the Millersburg and Harrisburg area.

Great. How much of the $3,000 budget will be used for marketing?

For marketing, probably maybe a third of it. As you can see, we've already started marketing a little bit with our annual.

No, this is a great event. I didn't even know that I've been there and I didn't know that.

Oh, that we do all those wonderful things?

The DeSoto amphitheater was in the back. I mean, the picture of it, it looks like an amazing amphitheater. It is. It's really cool.

It's absolutely. And that's one of the things is that we bring in tourists because of all of our functions that we have for the public. And we have three art galleries here.

And the walking trail.

Oh, the walking trails. And you know, we have a new bridge deck, too.

Yes, yes. For those who have never been there, this place is a hidden gem in Dauphin County, northern Dauphin County. You should get up there and check it out. Thank you. Tour the interior, outside the DeSoto. The amphitheater is really cool, too.

Also, just a small pat on our back is we actually through DCNR a year ago received a grant and we have the first ever in Pennsylvania wild mushroom conservation area. So we're attracting people from all over the United States to look at fungi.

the non-edible ones i prefer right i i presume not prefer i'm not sure i've never tried okay just that i'm making a joke okay thank you just just for clarity it's september 19th correct is the is the race all right great thank you so much uh next up is neurodiverse network incorporated and then on deck is new birth of freedom council are either of them here let me just say it one more time neurodiverse network inc not here uh new birth of freedom council there you go

Hi. Hello. We get 52 extra seconds.

I don't know. He'll restart it once you start talking. He'll restart it. Trust me, we're going to be sticklers now.

My name is Greg Culbertson, and I serve as the Chair of the New Bertha Freedom Council Sporting Play Chute. Professionally, I serve as the CFO, Treasurer, and Corporate Secretary of the Farmers Fire Insurance Company. Joining me today are Brian Deese, Assistant Executive Director of the New Bertha Freedom Council, and Rebecca Heim, Senior Vice President and Commercial Relationship Manager with Truist Bank, who also serves as a member of our committee. Over the past several years, our sporting play shoot has grown into the largest single-flight nonprofit sporting plays tournament in South Central Pennsylvania. What began as a fundraising effort has evolved into a regional destination event, one that brings business leaders, corporate sponsors, and outdoor enthusiasts into Dauphin County each year. This year, we are expecting approximately 225 participants and volunteers representing around 30 companies across a wide range of industries, including banking, insurance, construction, legal accounting, healthcare, and manufacturing. Many of these participants are coming from outside of Dauphin County. Our participants travel from across South Central Pennsylvania, Cumberland, York, Perry, Franklin, Adams, Lancaster, Berks, and Lebanon counties, bringing new visitors into the area and directly supporting goals of tourism investment. I'd like to turn it over to Rebecca to discuss the measurable economic perspective.

Thank you. Beyond the immediate spending, the event introduces attendees to Dauphin County in a meaningful way, often leading to repeat visits and continued engagement. Additionally, the event provides valuable networking environment, strengthening relationships among regional businesses and fostering opportunities that can translate into continued economic activity within the county. The event also highlights Blue Ridge Sportsman Club, one of Dauphin County's premier outdoor recreation assets. For many attendees, this is their first experience at the facility, exposing them to the county's broader outdoor recreation opportunities, which further supports Dauphin County's position as a destination for outdoor tourism. Proceeds from the event support scouting programs focused on leadership, citizenship, and character development. Each year, Scouts and volunteers contribute thousands of hours of community service, improving parks, trails, public spaces, and community events. What makes this event particularly impactful is that it brings together the business community, tourism, and outdoor recreation, along with youth development, creating a model where economic activity and community benefit occur together. With your support, we intend to expand our marketing efforts, attract additional out-of-county participants, and further enhance the event experience. We're committed to measuring and reporting outcomes, including attendance, geographic reach, and economic activity, ensuring transparency and accountability. We believe this event represents a strong return on investment for Dauphin County, bringing in new visitors, supporting local businesses, and reinvesting in the community through your development. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Great. How much of the 36K is for marketing? 20? 20% or 20,000? 20%. Do you track attendees, like where they're from? What would you say the makeup is of local 50 miles versus 50 miles plus?

65%. 65% local?

No, outside. Outside, okay. And my last question is, is it a competition or more like a leisure experience? Just like, is there a competition element to this? Because as we're seeing like sporting and stuff, like obviously the more competitive it is, like the more it draws people to see competitors. And I just didn't know if there was an element. Yeah. All right. Is there a reward for that? Is that what it is? No.

I'm actually going to throw it again this year because it's a pretty good award.

So there is a competition element? Okay. Great.

That's my question. And I didn't hear you mention, but what's your tie-in to the Boy Scouts?

They're the beneficiaries of the funds raised is that what you said? Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, I've been many of the breakfasts and some earth freedom So thank you for the great work you do there the Eagle Scouts We've all gone to Eagle Scout events and I'll tell you what those individuals by the time they get their Eagle Scout award I've done or for their local community and most people do time just by virtue of the project So very impressive and I'm glad you're tight

thank you thank you so much thanks all right next up is new life academy i see there are two grant requests for new life academy and then after that on deck is nra sorry what was that

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

For this, for this hour. Yeah. All right. So do you want to present both at the same time? Are you okay with that?

Yes. Good afternoon, everybody. Uh, my name is Jason Davenport. I'm the founder and the principal of the new life Academy, which is an all boys, private Christian school, uh, located in Hasburg. We are, um, We are located in Paxton Borough. We service young men from grades kindergarten through fourth grade. We are requesting tourism funding to support our two major annual fundraising events, our winter scholarship ball and our summer golf tournament. As an independent Christian school, these events are designated to not only raise scholarship funds for our students, but also attract visitors from outside of our local community. So. 100% of the funds we raise will go towards scholarship. 1 of my biggest harsh desires is that the accessibility to our school does not come down to affordability for parents. We want children to have access to these. this academic environment here regardless of what they can afford um and what scholarship money earned we've given um full scholarships to families not because we had the money in the bank really as an in-house scholarship because we wanted children to have these incredible opportunities and so this particular um these fundraisers be 100 for scholarship dollars um each year we anticipate um different business owners, community partners, sponsors, those that have partnered with our school to come into these events. I know we have been a part of a lot of regional and nationwide organizations all the way from as close as Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee. We've partnered with a lot of Christian organizations in New York. And they will come, not only have they donated to our school and helped out, but we also tend every year to hold training events and professional development for Christian schools and staff. And so we intend that These patrons not only come to our fundraiser events, but they will participate in lodging and hotel stays, restaurant dining, retail shopping, transportation services, and other tourism related opportunities and activities. The scholarship ball and the golf tournament create opportunities for guests to spend multiple days in our town to increase occupancy rates and local hotel stays and generating revenue for local businesses. It also allows us to expand our marketing efforts, attract a larger regional audience, and just enhance our overall event experience. And 40% of the funds that we're requesting towards marketing. And thank you for your consideration.

How many students are there? I know you said it goes up to fourth grade.

Yes, sir. So currently we have 12 students per grade, so 46 currently.

And what are the dates of the Scholars Bowl tournament?

My apologies. The Scholarship Bowl will be held December the 12th, and that's going to be at the Colonial Country Club. And the golf tournament, unfortunately, we had to postpone July's golf tournament to next summer.

so first thank you for your commitment to the community and commitment to education i think it's really important um just as we're trying to think about the basis for tourism as you know we've received nine million dollars in requests we have two million a little over two million to a lot obviously we want to identify tourism specific um You know what? What? Obviously, there's a lot of good here. There's a lot of good, a lot of good education and things that you're doing. What would be your biggest argument for like tourism? How this is going to draw people to our region that don't live in Dauphin County, that don't live in central Pennsylvania, for example?

Sure. We have a lot of schools and organizations in your county, Lancaster County, that have not only contribute the dollars amounts but have already committed to participating in our scholarship ball whether it be vendors at our events there are other scholarship organizations uh from philadelphia that would like to host uh host some vending they also offer scholarship opportunities for families as well so um not even just our guest of the event but um different sponsors those that have sponsored will come receive an award and also those that want to offer different things to families like um we offer the education piece some may be offering some other human resources. Great.

Thank you very much. Absolutely.

Thank you.

All right. We're at the turn of an hour. I'm going to ask that we take a 10-minute break, come back at 2 p.m. to get those who are here for the 2 to 3. We'll begin just to level set for when we get back. The NRA will be up, and then open stage will be on deck when we get back. I wanted to update everybody that the format is you'll come to the front table. You'll state your name. Your three-minute clock will start at that time. You'll have three minutes to present on your tourism application. We understand three minutes is a challenging time. This is obviously something you're very passionate about. You put a lot of time, energy, and effort into. We get that. But we have over hundreds of applications. We've been getting through them, doing our best to stay on task. We might ask you some follow up questions. We're trying to keep the follow up time to about two minutes. So if you expect more follow up questions for some reason, you don't have to use the whole three minutes. But yeah, I will announce who's up and then who's on deck just so that you're ready and prepared. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for being participating in this process. We'll begin with the NRA and then open stages on deck.

Hello. My name is Brandy Adam. I'm here with the Great American Outdoor Show. I am actually here on behalf of John Bailey today. He does send his regards. And I do just want to put a disclaimer. I thought we had five minutes, so I'm going to try to cut it when I can, but please bear with me. First and foremost, I will be discussing tourism, of course, and the direct economic impact of the show. I will probably have to cut this, but I also wanted to touch on a little bit of the direction and outlook for 2027 as well, if we can get to it. All right, so let's dive into the 2026 numbers. So starting with attendance, these show in 2026 accounted for just over 200,000 attendees. Attendees come from across the globe, 44 different states, all over the world, Canada, Africa, Argentina. Every single attendee that comes through the door, Dauphin County directly benefits through tax and tourism generated. Moving on to jobs, the show supports over 9,000 jobs, most of which are employed directly here in Dauphin County. Jobs supported are in the hospitality, retail, and vendor sectors, or sorry, retail and vendor sectors. Local companies include C&J Catering, Harrisburg Law Enforcement, Comcast, the Harrisburg Mall, hotel staff, JP Lilly, PA Entertainment Group, Farm Show Complex staff, and Harrisburg Airport, to name a few. Next up, hotels. Lodging has, of course, a tremendous impact. 5.8 million in lodging alone was generated. Most attendees stay overnight. As some of you are aware, you can't really experience the whole show in one day. Our exhibitors also stay for nine-plus days. We have over 1,000 exhibitors that will stay for nine-plus days for move-in and set-up and tear-down. Most of our more popular hotel partners include the Hilton, Staybridge, Crown, and the Hampton. And as a show, we directly promote all of those through our various channels, website, online, social media, so on and so forth. Other impacts that I wanted to get into that I felt were important to include 3.1 million in food and beverage, 4.7 million in transportation, 1.4 million in recreation generated, and also 3.3 million in retail sales. The show also hosts a friend dinner at the event, which generates $50,000 roughly, which gets donated right back into the local economy, various organizations and charities. Since the inception of the show, that's roughly half a million dollars donated to the community. All in all, we're looking at a whopping 71 million total impacts from the show. It's a profound impact on local businesses and is somewhat of a lifeline, if you will, as many depend on the income generated during February, which is the most crucial time of the year. The last piece, if I can get into this quickly, is the outlook and vision for 2027. So the main goal, of course, is to grow the show, increase attendance, and add more value to attendees, all of which generates more funding, more tourism dollars, and even a larger impact. I'll jump down to the last sentence in here. Really, we're trying to target more non-outdoorsmen and women. That is the plan to increase marketing and advertising budget. So as we target more and more attendees to grow the show, the return is twofold, stimulates the local economy and drives revenue for all. So the ask is pretty simple. We ask that you help support the efforts and continue to foster a mutually beneficial partnership on behalf of the county as well as the Great American Public Show.

Thank you.

questions okay I don't have any questions I want to make a statement the great American outdoor show is the largest outdoor show not just in Pennsylvania not just in the United States it's the largest outdoor show in the world it's held right down the street at the farm show complex 80 million dollars a year in economic impact 9,000 jobs created during the show millions tax revenue millions and other output as well as you mentioned and it's a it's a show that i am proud of supporting each year uh you didn't mention but the harrisburg city police have been the recipient of grant funding and i know our dolphin county sheriff's department has received at least one vehicle in the past so there's a lot of winners out of that show so thank you for doing the presentation i look forward to uh many more years of success here yeah i appreciate the opportunity thank you thank you very much

Open stage. And on deck is PA Airshow LLC.

Hey there.

Hello. I'm Stuart Landon. I'm the producing artistic director at Open Stage. We're a professional theatre company located right across the street here. We're 40 years old. We're in our 40th anniversary season, which has been a really big hit. And that is no small part to the support of the county, which we really appreciate over the years. Of course, audiences are looking for meaningful and meaningful I think, thought-provoking and also entertaining art and a chance to escape our daily stresses. And we're right there across the street in downtown Harrisburg supporting this downtown environment and this wonderful corridor. Our productions attract visitors from across the region, bringing audiences into Harrisburg and generating tourism-related spending. In recent years, we've welcomed patrons from 21 states and two other countries, demonstrating our ability to draw people into the county. And our largest productions in Season 40, Jesus Christ Superstar and Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas, saw nearly 70% of audience members come from outside Dauphin County, which is pretty awesome. And we have a pretty large... portion of folks coming from out of town and from out of the county uh we are planning to use these funds um for a professional marketing strategy utilizing billboards um on major highways uh targeting uh folks social media campaigns print advertising radio promotions direct mail and photo video and audio production to make sure that we're able to attract people to these theatrical productions meeting them where they're at of course visitors while they're here are eating at restaurants, staying at hotels, and experiencing Harrisburg's broader arts and cultural activities as well. So every dollar invested in marketing helps bring more visitors into Dauphin County, which we're really pleased to have sat in for the last 40 years. uh being the oldest professional theater company in town uh means that we have a a lot of stuff to prove i think and i think this is a new way for us to attract folks is uh to have i think a little bit more video production and come into the 21st century properly um and have some compelling marketing materials a little bit more um so we've got a really wonderful lineup including bringing back jesus christ superstar next season uh which we uh Out of the 2,500 folks that came to see Jesus Christ Superstar last year at the Forum Auditorium, which is where we produced that show, many, many, many of them were from out of the county. Looking forward to producing it again this coming year, and I know we're going to sell out the Forum, which I'm really excited about. And then Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas, which is a delightful holiday show based on the Jim Henson television program. That one we're bringing back again. Hopefully this is going to be one we do for a few years. For many years we did a Christmas Carol and this was kind of our replacement piece for that one after doing Christmas Carol for 25 years. So Emmett Otter is back and that's going to once again was a big hit for folks from outside of the county and looking forward to having a sold out season this coming year.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

That was perfect timing too.

You knew how to use every second of those three minutes. That's right. Appreciate it. I did speech and debate. For the 15,000 that you're requesting, how much will be used for marketing?

Oh, I think the intention is to use two-thirds of that for marketing, and then the other third is to, when it comes to materials, to create said marketing. I think that's it. Oh, okay. Yeah, so it's all for marketing. All for marketing. Yeah. Okay.

And then do you track audience attendees by zip code? Is that how you do it?

Yeah.

And do you know, do you happen to know the breakdown of local versus 50 miles plus away of your attendees?

I don't know offhand, but anecdotally, I will say that because we are choosing pieces that are more, I think, commercial lately in order for us, just because of the, I think, the environment and the world that we're trying to get folks to give them some comfort when it comes to pieces like Jesus Christ Superstar or Ammon Otter. And previous to that, we had a couple of musicals that were really big hits. Those were bringing folks in from far beyond our walls. So anecdotally, I'll say that it's been more than ever and it keeps growing, which is really exciting. So I certainly get you those.

Estimate like 70, 30.

Oh, I would say 70, 30 is a really smart estimate. I would say that most folks are going to come in from the counties around us. But we have brought in folks from beyond and more and more every year.

sure thank you that's extending my questions this applicant checks all the boxes for me thank you so much thank you so much thank you all right pa air show and penn national turf club is on deck thank you you could if you have an extra one you can leave it for commissioner

Again, Greg Cook, Hershey Harrisburg Sports Events Authority here on behalf of Air.Show. They just wrapped up a show in Ocean City, Maryland this past weekend. One of their key people is still down there closing down that show. Brian Lilly, who runs the show and is a lower dolphin guy, is in D.C. for a function today. So I asked them for some information. They said they would like to be here to be in front of you, so I offered to do that for them. So just by way of recap from this past Memorial Day weekend, they always do the Friday rehearsal day, which is basically a full-on show, but it's their way to work out some of the details of the show for the rest of the weekend, kind of a friends and family day for HIA personnel as well. Saturday this year was rained out. Those ticket buyers were moved to Monday. Sunday, the only issue was that the F-16 was unable to perform due to the low ceiling. But he did do two performances on Monday to sort of make good for not being able to do that on Saturday. Monday was the best weather, packed crowd, very successful show. All the folks at the airport, Tim, Ryan, Scott, Marie, all excited about the last two years and also looking forward to next year, which will be in July on the 10th and the 11th. They'll do the rehearsal day on Friday the 9th as they as they have the last two years. And the show next year will feature the Air Force Thunderbirds. Media numbers from this year's show, you can see there nearly 2 million eyeballs on the TV audience. Over $9,000 of value in radio exposure. 509 million online audience and social audience of almost 1.6 million so i mean i know you guys see it on the news on social media uh all of our local outlets but uh the show is a tremendous impact here uh with about 40 000 people uh attendees that that come in for the show so um very hopeful for that to continue in the years ahead Certainly your support is a big piece of that.

Is this back funding what just took place a few weeks ago, or is this forward funding next year's? This is... Yeah, just wanted to make sure. Well, you had mentioned the Thunderbirds were coming next year. I mean, I know that's happening, but I'm just curious.

This is funding.

That's correct, just due to the timing.

No, I mean, it's a fabulous event. So this was the second year, and then the coming one will be the third, right? The annual. I mean, it's something that people have already gravitated to as a staple, and hopefully it will remain that. Yes. I have no question.

I have to ask this because the number is just so enormous. Total online audience, 509 million. That's over half a billion. Half a billion. How do you get that number?

I'll have to send you the link to their media.

That's more than the population of the entire United States.

Okay. I'll forward the link to their full.

It's total, correct?

That's correct, total. Yep.

Thank you, Greg. Thank you. All right, next up is Penn National Turf Club, LLC. And then on deck is Penn State University Harrisburg Men's Basketball Tip-Off Classic.

Hello. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Alex Visdom, the regional director of compliance for Penn National Turf Club and Hollywood Casino. Joined with me today is Tony Fabile, who's our general manager. We're here seeking $150,000 for our summer concert series. So this is a program that started back in late 2021 and has been continuing on now for over five years. In the application, we indicate that the average attendance per show is 2008-86, which was based on last year's numbers. Through two shows so far this year, which was Hailstorm and Darius Rucker, we're now averaging over 4,000 attendees per show, which is a 40% increase year over year. We've continued to have 88% of those attendees come from outside Dauphin County. And about 28% of the total attendees are from outside the state. We spoke with our neighbors in Grantville, the restaurants and hotels. They reported last year seeing at least a 15% revenue increase on those days, on our concert days. And I would guess it's probably higher this year with an additional 40% of people doing it. We're looking at a $1.2 million annual impact from our concert series, and on the concert days, we have a gaming lift of at least $30,000 over what we normally would do on that Friday or Saturday, which again, as you know, as I'm sure you're very familiar with, is a portion of that comes back to the county in terms of the local share assessment there. So we are continuing. We've done two shows this year. Unfortunately, Brad Paisley had to cancel, but he's coming back next year when he has a new album out. So it should be an even bigger show. July 10th, we have Rick Springfield and Starship. July 11th, we have Brent Michaels, a local favorite with Fuel from York coming. July 15th, we have 311 and Dirty Heads. And August 21st, we have John Pardee, and of course, July 3rd, we have our Camels, Ostriches, and Zebras exhibition races. The other thing we're proud of with this program is not the last one, the Camels, Ostriches, and Zebra exhibition races.

It's race these things.

Yeah, yeah. One of the other things we're very proud about this is a portion of our ticket sales go to the PA Veterans Trust Fund. And since 2022, we've donated through this concert series, almost $200,000 to the PA Veterans Trust Fund. We also partner with the Grantville Volunteer Fire Company for parking and have contributed over 67,000 to them based on these concerts. And we work with Type 1 Diabetes Breakthrough in terms of helping with ushering and have generated over 25,000 to them in donations. So we're happy to answer any questions for you.

I think you guys have a great venue out there. I think it's a great concept outdoors. I was at the Incubus concert. It was a good concert. Looking forward to going to 311. I didn't know Fuel. Did you say Fuel was going to be there? Fuel's opening for Brian Michaels. That's awesome. That's great. The 150 request, how much is going to marketing specifically? Do you know offhand?

All of that will contribute towards marketing through offset of the talent pizza.

That's the extent of my questions. I have to ask, the increase in the amount of people showing up per show this year, is that due to marketing success or are the bands more popular, a combination thereof?

I would say a combination of both. This is our fifth season, so now that we have more stabilization in the marketplace and more awareness, I think we're seeing more visitation. um and then also you know i think uh having big acts like hail storm for example coming from york live we had last year also from the york area really speaks to i think our customer base in the area and also has a wide reach so it's a little bit of i think both very good thank you i was bummed i couldn't make it to that live show that's the one i wanted to go it's a great one you have anything commissioner hartwig yeah thank you for your partnership thank you thank you all so much

all right next up we have penn state university harrisburg men's basketball tip-off classic on deck as pennsylvania junior wrestler good afternoon it's an honor to be here and thank you commissioners and staff for your time my name is don friday i'm the head men's basketball coach at pennsylvania state university harrisburg our tip-off classic now is in its 12th year The benefits of our ask for the grant has helped us assemble one of, we believe, one of the best Division III programs here in the mid-state of Penn State Harrisburg. Our program is relatively new and upstart, but in the last six years, we've been very fortunate to go to the NCAA tournament four or six times. And what this tournament seed money does for us, it allows us to attract quality teams to come play us, which is very difficult to schedule. Early on, it was easy because we weren't very good. And as we've gotten more competitive, it's very difficult to do that. In the last two years, we've been able to bring in teams. Six of those eight teams have been NCAA Division III national tournament qualifiers. So we've developed a very good program. What the money helps us do is a couple of things. Like we have no budget line within the university. uh, to take care of these type of, uh, projects. So we're able to bring in these teams, uh, get great visibility. We estimate that these teams bring in anywhere between 300 to 600 fans that need lodging for the one night. We intentionally, uh, market the games, uh, five and seven on Saturday night with a quick turnaround of one on three to keep people here in town so that they come in here and they stay in the hotels. Uh, We are bound by the Penn State University, the mothership. Like, for example, the Adidas contract right now, we see basically a 40. They give us a 40 percent discount and tell us to ride all your Nike gear and now buy Adidas gear. So we have to be very creative with the way we go about giving our student athletes a great experience. And we do that. We go through the normal process. licensed vendors that we have to go through but we also look to keep the money back here in dauphin county we utilize roberto's pizza local vendor in middletown supporting them to help our community we also use the harrisburg uh the comfort in suites harrisburg south and they're a big they're a big part of our our tip-off tournament classic the other monies are really done to defer the cost for those teams coming in marketing of t-shirts and then putting the money back into prizes. So it's a wash, but something we could not do within our budget if we had to come for this out of it. So we ask for your graciousness again. Help us build something great and invest in the community. I think with that, also the back end of that, try to do good for the greater good of Dauphin County. When you win, people want to hitch their wagons to winners, and that's based on the backs of the hard work of our student-athletes. But Enterprise and Ollie's Bargain Outlets each year, they give us $3,000, and we do a shop with a cop and a Penn State Harrisburg basketball player. We give 30 underserved children in the Dauphin County area $100 shopping spree at Ollie's. So we want to take what we want to give. Thank you very much. We are Penn State.

Another solid. Now you've got Mike's attention.

We are.

And that's a first. That's a first.

This is the MLK tip-off, right? No, sir.

This is the Penn State Harrisburg men's basketball tip-off classic in November.

Sorry. Okay, so this is different. My apologies. My apologies. I was at the MLK tip-off, which was like where I think you're – those are high schoolers, but I think your program's still a part of that as well, right? Yes, yes. And that was well done, so I can only assume this is also well done. So thank you for your commitment.

And Rashawn's still your AD? That is correct. One of the best ever. He is, no doubt about that. Good man. Yes, sir.

Coach Friday.

You got Hammer this year, too, a local talent. Ethan. Yes. Ethan Hammer, a young man who coaches football and basketball. He'll be a good addition for Crowder, too.

We're honored. We're honored. Obviously, anytime we can support the blue line. Right. And Sheriff Nick Cementi has been a big advocate of mine down there. you know, Kalief Turner, Milton Hershey student, the Donye Baylor Carols, the Pedro Rodriguez's that, you know, we've been able to keep that really great connection with Dauphin County. And we want to keep more here in Harrisburg.

That's a good point. Brilliant strategy on the timing of the games, too, because as they're coming in from outside the area, I remember travel baseball and travel hockey. The games would be scheduled at 8 o'clock at night, 7 o'clock in the morning, and we weren't driving back from New Jersey or Philly. We would stay there. The timing to keep them there, that's good. They stay overnight at the hotels.

Right. And our teams this upcoming year slate will be St. Joseph of Brooklyn. So we have a New York City based team, Eastern University out of Philadelphia and Immaculata University out of the Malvern area. So, you know, we'll we'll do it right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. And what an honor to be here. I like coach.

Next up is Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling. On deck is Pennsylvania National Horse Show Foundation.

Thank you. good afternoon my name is jim bigley i'm the communications coordinator for pennsylvania junior wrestling also the pennsylvania junior wrestling area 13 chairman and one of the co-chairs of 2025 and 2026 u-state championships which took place at the farm show complex I'm here today to speak in support of our grant program. In 2026, our youth championships hosted approximately 2,000 wrestlers from across the Commonwealth, from 8U to 12U, so it's all youth wrestlers, for two days of competition at the Farm Show. support of our application i've provided you with a summary of the economic impact which was developed for us in partnership with the harrisburg uh hershey harrisburg sports and events authority i'd like to thank danielle vincenti at the and mr cook there for at the at the authority for helping us with that excuse me mr mr cook And as you can see from our application, our little tournament over two days had an economic impact of over $3 million. I'll let the form kind of speak to itself. This is the first time I've kind of done some of this, but again, 7,000 attendees we've sold over this year. And again, in 2025, we had similar numbers. But in addition to the economic impact of the success because of this program or this event, we're able to give back approximately $200,000 this year alone to local wrestling communities. Those donations went in support of everything from new wrestling mats, scholarship funds, new uniforms, and helping wrestlers travel to off-season tournaments, including the one that's coming up in Fargo, North Dakota. Any grant monies received that we received from this go to offset operational costs, including mat rental, clock rental, operational costs, we actually put a Jumbotron inside the Farm Show Arena, the New Holland Arena, using PA Entertainment Group at the cost of $20,000 itself. So any donations help us offset those costs or any grants help us offset those costs and send them back to the thing. I also recently learned that due to the success of our event, other wrestling events are going to be using the Farm Show Complex and using our model that we have for the last two years at the event in order to bring those events to the Farm Show Complex. So this will further increase the economic impact of not only our event, but other events as well. So thank you for your time and consideration. I noticed that the clock just started. So 30 seconds in.

So thank you. 2,000 wrestlers, roughly?

Yes, sir. And again, it's annual. So we get approximately 2,000 youth boys and girls wrestlers.

And then you had 6,000 attendees?

Yeah, we sold over two days. We sold 9,000, a little over 9,000 tickets.

Okay. I'm just reading the application, but obviously you provide it different. That's great.

and it was that the events already completed march 28th and 29th it was yes so any and we're finalizing some bills we still have a few outstanding bills but we're also hoping to bring the tournament back it'll be in pittsburgh for two years and our goal again is to work with hhse to help bring it back in 2029 and 2030. yeah thank you commissioner harvard i have a question for you are you a better wrestler or a better referee

I was going to say, it took a little while for you to respond. George was a state qualifying wrestler back in the day.

And we struck up an incredible friendship. Absolutely.

So we're able to donate money back to the officials so they can support scholarships for local wrestlers and things like that.

Yes. Very good. Thank you. That's awesome.

Thank you.

Next up is Pennsylvania National Horse Show Foundation. On deck is Pennsylvania Regional Ballot.

Jeez, that's a lot of wrestling, a lot of fans.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. I'm Susie Shirk, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania National Horse Show Foundation. In 2026, we are actually going to celebrate 80 years of the Farm Show Complex. Harrisburg, as it's known in the equestrian world, everyone competes out all year long to actually be invited to come to Harrisburg. Why do we want to have a horse show in Harrisburg is because the facility is all under one roof and allows additional space for us to conduct a world-class event, bring riders, trainers, families and their horses and ponies from across the US and abroad. The Harrisburg area provides everything our clientele could ask for. vast array of lodging options with hotels and camping restaurants meeting places for their family and friends and attractions from chocolate to craft breweries to art music in our amazing capital there are so much to do and see around harrisburg what do we bring to harrisburg our total economic impact figures provided to us by the Visit Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, relays the following. Total impact in 2025 was $7,702,808. Total direct spend in excess of $5 million. 912 jobs supported, federal taxes of $667,000. In 2025 we had 1252 riders competing in the ring during our 11 day event each rider brings a minimum of four additional people their village to attend the show 98% stay in hotels. majority of them flying into HIA or capital or capital city airport rent rental cars use the shops at local stores to eat in local restaurants in the past often County Commissioners have been very generous in in helping us in supporting us and in order to maintain this type of event we were asking again for your help um in consideration we've applied for the grant which you have the documents and information that i sent to you um with our application and we just really like to thank you for um all that you've done for us in the past We've also been privileged to partner with other events at the Farm Show Complex, namely the Horse World Expo, the First Frontier Rodeo, and the Pennsylvania Farm Show to partner to raise awareness of the role agriculture and equine industry plays in Pennsylvania. So again, we truly appreciate your attention. um support this past year we were able to give back 125 000 to the therapeutic writing groups that um apply for uh grant funding from us um and hopefully our goal is to increase that amount again for 2026. thank you for your time and your support

Thank you. I just want to note when I was reviewing this particular application, it's a 10-day event.

Eleven. Eleven. Okay.

I mean, that's significant. I mean, when you think about, you know, 98% of your audience staying in hotels, that's not just a short hotel stay. That can be a very long hotel stay and lots of regional economic impact. So I have no questions.

I know in the past, 1st of all, I think this meets all the different criteria to. You know, make investment down. Additional and long term sustainable investment.

I know in the past we didn't we invest in new footing for the yes take the history basically with the advancement of the equestrian community and what the athletes require and what they require for their horses we actually provide it's called it's international grade footing the horses just can't jump on dirt anymore they have to have footing that has um it has fiber in it it has to have a certain moisture content so there's a hole uh scientific process behind the footing for the horse show back in 2016 actually we secured and dalton county helped us to secure the building to store the footing up on elmerton right there at the farm show so that's where it's stored during the year and we actually hire trucks uh to drive it back and forth during the horse show um as it's input into the into the so that that's still in operation and good use what would you be using this request for is marketing mostly marketing probably two-thirds of for marketing we also we also build a terrace um in the seating of the um of the new holland arena for actually to make a vip area we have vip tables and it's basically a place for our high-end clientele to come and they can sit there all day and watch. Basically, they're looking right into the ring to see the competition, the place for them to have their kids, and just to be together with everybody during the show.

My last question is, with as much participation in long-term sort of experiences at the horse show, are there any ancillary sort of arrangements or cooperative sort of events that you may have with, you know, visit Hershey Harrisburg or, you know, the community or the concert series, you know, having folks here and their attention for 11 days, Hershey Park connection sort of, what do you do while folks are in town?

Well, we send an email to Sharon and ask for some help with partnerships and see what we can do to promote, really, you know, to promote the horse show, what's going on, and what can we do with Visit Hershey Harrisburg to help promote both ways.

great thank you okay commissioner can i answer that just a little bit deeper um i can say that we over the years um both being at farm show and and with the visitors bureau that a lot of the high-end shops in town love when penn nationals in town um because these ladies you know don't don't shop at the low-end stores So a lot of our higher-end businesses in the region really benefit from this event. As Susie noted, Capital Airport, Capital City Airport is also utilized because a lot of people bring their private jets in versus commercial. Certainly, HIA benefits wildly, but so does our regional private airport as well. Also, Penn National over the years has worked with the 4-H horse show that comes in immediately after, where a lot of expenses they would have had to incur themselves. Penn National, because it is a youth event, Penn National allows them to use footing in a lot of their setup and such to reduce their costs as well. So they're a really big supporter of youth athletes as well.

Awesome. Great partnerships.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Sharon, the outdoor show is the largest one. Would you say this is in the top 10, or where would you position this?

Yeah, absolutely. Top 10 for sure. Probably closer. I mean, based on the number of days that this event is in town, it has a really high economic impact. So, you know, on the economic impact scale, it's definitely one of our largest from profitability in the venue. It's, you know, just a little bit lower, but still within the top 10 for sure.

For the record, I had a sidebar with Sharon where I was going to ask her that exact same question. That's what I thought. He read your lips, and that's why he asked the question.

We're getting giddy. Thank you. Thank you.

Pennsylvania Regional Ballet is up, and Pop's house is on deck.

Hello. Long time no see. It's been a while.

It's good to see you.

Thank you, Bradley. Thank you. I'll have to think about that. I see you've got a face for radio. it's called it's called doing plugs sorry go ahead which clock am i watching by the way it'll be the one down here it'll start once you stay

um thank you for your time today my name is denise brinley i'm president of the board of directors of the pennsylvania regional ballet i've i assumed that role two months before covet hit and i've been at the helm uh for the entire time the ups and downs of an art organization going through a pandemic and then several economic crises later um We're still here and we're standing. I'm accompanied by Brad Gephardt, who is our director of development, and together we prepared this application for your consideration. I want to start first by saying that everything that our organization does is for the benefit of children who are pursuing a craft in a very, very difficult sport. They spend upwards of 25 hours a week in our studios preparing for every performance that we do, and our focus is entirely on them. For those of you who aren't familiar with our organization, while we are located in Enola, every single one of our performances is held in Dauphin County. And we are the resident ballet company for the Ned Smith Center in northern Dauphin County, and we bring a free performance there every Memorial Day. to expand arts access to rural communities. So I know that's not about this grant, but I think background and relevancy of what we're trying to do to bring arts to the community is important. We're here to talk about our annual Nutcracker performance. We've been doing the Nutcracker at the Scottish Rite Theatre for over 20 years. I'm not sure that many of you know that, but we are committed. We've been there, and we will continue to be there for as long as we can continue to perform. We're also a 501c3, so everything that we do is, and all of our profits are redirected back into our organization for the children. The event is a five-day, I'm sorry, a five-performance event. over three days the first two performances are dedicated to educational performances and those are directed to the Harrisburg School District, and we completely underrate the full cost of tickets for anyone in the Harrisburg School District who wants to come. So last year, we formed a strategic partnership with Kirsten Keys at the district, and we sold out both performances. So I think it's important to understand context when we're asking for funding for the Nutcracker. It is also tied to our ability to continue to do that for the school district. we do it our budget is all in some so we rent theater for a week we hire guest artists we market the performance we hire locals to help us with sound and production so we are spending a lot of money and we're drawing um we're drawing people from a six county range so it's primarily the collar counties around boffin county um also last year we had 5 600 people attending our show and that foot traffic brings with it dinner and and the show and so oh i'm already at three minutes okay i'll wrap it up um we have on your paperwork identified what we know is the direct direct and economic impact we don't have the indirect and induced but we're asking you to look at that lens like this is what we're able to to calculate just for the show we know it's a lot more uh it's difficult to analyze without having full economic impact resources to our avail. So we don't have that. But we hope that you find our application worthwhile for all of the reasons that I laid out. We're happy to answer any questions that you have to advance your understanding of what we're asking for.

Thank you so much. Based on the handout you gave, it looks as if about half of the grant specifically will be used for marketing.

Yes.

Just wanted to make that.

Yeah. Marketing is actually really, really important for arts events because you just need to get to people and you need to find those ways. And so it has to be a multi-pronged marketing strategy, which includes billboards, includes radio, includes print. we work with all of our partners like harrisburg magazine and lamar and we do good day pa we do all of the things but that's very expensive it really is expensive and for a small non-profit art studio with a nutcracker budget in the range of 65 to 100 000 depending on what we add um it puts strain our organization and we just don't know how much longer we can keep doing all the free for harrisburg city in addition to you know the public performances with all of the things that we're bringing these are this is not a recital it is as close to a professional production that you're going to have of a nutcracker anywhere hands down it is like seeing something on in new york city So we're bringing a very high level of performance into a city that doesn't have its own resident ballet company, that doesn't have access to ballet on a regular basis, especially not professional ballet. So we also bring in professional artists to augment our performance because we think it's important to narrating the story and also showcasing the talent.

I'm just happy to see you, Denise. It's been a long time. And you always provide such smart, insightful presentation and comments no matter what you're doing, whether it's through your environmental work or your passion for ballet. And thank you for giving us a lot to think about and your presentation and all the things you do continue to provide the community. So good to see you.

Thank you. We appreciate taking the time to review our application and we hope you find us worthy.

simple yes no question do you receive any city of harrisburg support from a funding perspective no thank you thanks thank you pop's house is up and push play foundation is on deck hey little coach Whenever you're ready.

I didn't know. I'm nervous about the clock.

Your clock will start as soon as you state your name.

Good afternoon. My name's Larry Moore. Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm the artistic director for Pops House. I'm here for Shelby Kearney, CEO. and to my right your left is sharon digles and she's our consultant and retired uh pennsylvania council of the arts deputy director yeah um we're here uh due to pop's house uh the july music series um shelby kearney started her uh pop's house back in 2007 2017. The July music series is a beloved summer tradition, becoming one of the region's most anticipated cultural events, drawing thousands of residents and visitors for free, for free. High quality performance that celebrate diversity and talent in our rich culture and our community. We're asking for $65,000 to help out In the two areas, we have four dates that we have, but the Youth Showcase and also Jazz Under the Stars are the two ones that we're looking at right now. Our Youth Showcase is phenomenal. We do about 12 to 15 acts with students all over Dauphin County and outside the county as well, grades 5 through 12. We probably have about 100, excuse my voice, it's going in and out. We probably have 100 youth participating in our talent show. One of our special guests this year is the Temple Guard out of New York that has about 40 participants. They have traveled all over to the White House. They've been on parades in New York and all over, and we were having an opportunity to have a special guest come in, along with all of the students that are in the Harrisburg outside school districts, Central Dauphin and McDevitt and what have you. Also, the showcase consists of different types of talent. We go around and look for talent. We go to all the schools. We go to the talent shows. We were just at the NAACP and also the cues as far as the sci-fi. And we have like three of our kids that... Or from the actual talent, I heard you mentioned that yesterday, but we have 3 kids or 4 kids participating in the showcase that will be participating in the national, uh, actual awards in Chicago. The attendance for that day is probably about 5 to 800 people that come to the park. Also, the other thing that we do, the other program is the Jazz Under the Stars. It's been Inception for seven years. And I'm out of my time already, but Jazz Under the Stars. And the two programs that we have, really, we have a lot of support. The marketing aspect of it, we have Harrisburg Explore. that we'll be doing each of our weeks for us, our four weeks. ABC events calendar that we'll be doing every week. We have three billboards through Lamar that we'll be advertising. National artists that we have coming in that do cross promotions and also just friends and also people coming in from all over, from different areas to come in to see the shows. Any other questions and anything from Sheila?

I'd also like to add that there, from the showcase, there was established a Pops House Youth Jazz Ensemble that has performed at several major events. The Imani Festival in Carlisle, they just performed at Arts Fest.

They performed this past weekend at Downtown.

They've become a big success. We developed a 14-week curriculum. And from that, these very talented young people have kind of taken the city and the venues by storm.

Do you receive any Harrisburg City support for tourism? Yes, we receive $25,000.

In tourism money? I don't know if it's tourism money, but we received 25,000 dollars. And we also received in kind services, probably 25 to 30,000 that we don't pay for any permits. We don't pay for anything there. They do all the maintenance clean up set up. Light powers, everything for the day.

And what's your total marketing? Because you had mentioned like multiple billboards, but in here what I'm seeing is $3,000 for marketing. Yes. If you have multiple billboards, I'd assume it's more.

Well, what we have for marketing, I mean, the billboards are in kind. Oh, okay. The billboards are in kind. We do a lot of hustling, Commissioner. Of course, and also ABC 27 is in kind and also Harrisburg Explore. So, I mean, that's five figures right there. And also, everything is documented, that we have a videographer, we have a webmaster, and also a photographer that documents everything that we do. That's my question.

I know this has provided a great opportunity for music venues throughout the city. I think one of the things we all talked about was having a better partnership and sort of an equal level of commitment from the city and the county to the internal events of the city. This is just build as a city so showcase series and they're given you know about 50 60 000 in kind and you're requesting you know um close to 100 000 from the county um i i would probably equate it to being a county music series um but but but The only thing I just want to say publicly, we just want the ability to coordinate how this will work out for future years, you know, at least from my perspective, to just make sure it's a true partnership.

I mean, and you're right, Commissioner. I mean, I've been with Shelby for seven years. Uh, and the county commission has been very, very grateful of funding this opportunity. I think it's great. That that I'm hearing that the secret Harrisburg may receive or has a tourism dollars, which is much needed and being a retired often counties, city of Harrisburg events person through the years. I think that equation what you're doing. is a perfect scenario, to be honest with you, to take some heat off of you with all the dollars that you're giving out throughout the county. So I do think that one thing that's different than I'm hearing now, our stuff is free. I mean, we're right in the hub of Allison Hill. People don't have an opportunity to go out to pay for tickets. I mean, I hear a lot of people coming in charging for tickets. We're not charging. We're hustling for money. And thank God we have the commissions. I mean, Pieces of a Dream coming in on their 50th anniversary tour. I mean, huge. They're iconic. And for someone to be able to come out and also travel, man, they're doing the cross promotions. So for us to be able to put a smile on people's faces and have an opportunity to come out for the weekend, who knows what's going on and the struggles of their homes and things like that. And it's just a great opportunity. So we tried to cover all the bases as far as marketing and heads and beds. I mean, we probably do. I mean, we'll be back, but we probably, with those two events alone, it's probably about 30 hotel rooms for artists that are coming in town for the weekend. along with families and everything else.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Coach. Appreciate you. Next up is Push Play Foundation. On deck is Regional Arena Management. See you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Sarah. I'm the tournament director of the central PA unity cup. And, um. I am a little fish in a big pond today. I have received grants from dolphin county tourism in the past since 2022 when the unity cup was founded. The unity cup is established to promote culture and identity through a soccer tournament. So, as we can tell the world cup is currently being run in the United States, and it is a. Success so far in terms of immigration in terms of highlighting the cultures of our area. So the central PA unity cup was started. And baby off of the Philadelphia unity cup, it's an adult style world cup tournament and this year we are expecting 16 teams of approximately 320 athletes. We've had cultures represented like Italy, Bosnia, Honduras, the Nepali, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria. We are one of the only programs that provide women's adult soccer in the Dauphin County and Central Pia area. This year, we're doing a four-day show or four-day event, July 30th to August 2nd, all at City Island. um we're partnering with a non-profit called kicks for all foundation they provide low-income soccer clinics in susquehanna township area and provide scholarships and equipment to the youth and this tournament has provided a means for them to raise money and awareness the the small amount that we've asked for the dolphin county tourism would go back into things like referees so At the World Cup level, what FIFA is doing is amazing with the amount of the budget. But when you spend $226 per game on three referees, it was very important for me to design an adult soccer tournament that had safety and protection. So referees are your main thing with a soccer tournament that provide the stability for a tournament to be safe and to have the competitiveness Competitiveness and professionalism to provide a great tournament for attendees to return. We are inviting teams from William sport in Philadelphia to attend this year. So, um, the tourism impact would. For those 4 days at city island include the hotels and the restaurants downtown and further out. The unity cup has worked with politicians in the past to highlight the immigration issues of our county and our central area. I provided a little quick facts for you and the commissioners and again, you've provided money in the past and we thank you for that so much. I do have to make note that I was the former president of Push Play Foundation. We had not come to an agreement for the Unity Cup this year, so we are doing it under Kicks for All Foundation, just a change of name. Again, they are an excellent program for the area that provides soccer clinics on City Island for free and a lot of other benefits like scholarship programs and equipment. And I provided our team poster. question for you uh any city of harrisburg money provided or subsidies the city of harrisburg was promote uh proposed this in 2021 we wanted to run the tournament so when it was through philadelphia unity cup their budget was eighty thousand dollars it was through their parks and rec um harrisburg parks and rec wasn't able to provide any funding they do provide um access to city island and um probably like uh more of like favorites not favoritism but

At a cost or subsidized? No. Is it no cost to utilize City Island?

No, we do pay. Okay. So the answer.

It's a four-day event, over 1,000 athletes. How many of those athletes are 50 miles or further away, would you guess?

It's a thousand athletes was over the four years over the four years. Yeah.

So let's see about three athletes that will be there this year.

Three hundred twenty athletes annually. Is that about 16 teams? Three hundred twenty. Sorry, I misread that. But of them, like, what do you anticipate would be 50 miles away, likely needing a hotel room?

We expected at least two teams, so 20 to 40. Okay. We do also compete with the Lancaster Unity Cup that sprung up after us. We were the third Unity Cup in the nation, and Philadelphia has discontinued theirs, so we are reaching out to their demographics for the four days.

How much of your 10,000 we used on?

I think it was less than 1,000. Okay. mostly referee fees, which is local employment fields. Insurance was a very big one with a competitive tournament.

Any other questions?

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Next up, we have regional arena management, and then we start a new hour with Robert M. Jackson, Veterans Center Inc. on deck. Is regional arena management here? does not look like they are here. As we head into the top of an hour, I will just state for those who are in attendance for this last hour of the day, you'll come up to the table when your name's called. I'll tell you who's up. I'll tell you who's on deck, just so you know, and you can be prepared. You'll state your name. Once you state your name, the clock will start. You'll have three minutes to present. You don't have to use all that time. We're going through hundreds of applications. Certainly can use that all that time. We know it's something you're very passionate about and want to tell us all about. But we also want to ask questions. We want to get some more content context on your tourism application. And thank you so much for being here. Thank you for participating in this process. We really appreciate you being available. uh so we will begin uh the top of this hour with robert m jackson veterans center if they're here yep and on deck will be the sankofa american or african-american leader company it's helpful stuff

Long time no see, Miss Battle.

Sorry.

At least you were scheduled in the right vein. Sharon's my neighbor. She walks the dog too much by my house.

whenever you're ready, I guess.

We're presenting the second half of our July Music Series, Commissioners. This is Robert M. Jackson, Shelby Kearney, the CEO of Pop's House, and also Robert M. Jackson. Pop's House is located in Allison Hill, and, of course, the Jackson House is right off of the Derry Street there in back of the ugly warehouse right there. We're asking for... We're asking for $50,000 for the...

The Gospel Night and the Afro-Latino Festival.

Yes.

Both of those festivals bring a number of specific artists that rarely perform in this area. The community has greatly embraced it in the past. We have collaborated with the Latino community in joining those two festivals together. to great success. The artists are very large groups that come in from Philadelphia, as well as beyond Philadelphia in Maryland. And it has been greatly appreciated by the community. Again, it is free of charge. and is something that rarely comes to this community, both for contemporary as well as traditional gospel. And for the Afro Soul Latino Festival, there will be the Dominion African Dance Company that will be bringing in guest artists out of Maryland to perform with them. There are also... Rahim Devon and the Crank Crusaders also performing, as well as other Latino artists that will be coming in to perform that day.

And also the Singers Lounge will be there that day as well. The gospel program will be Zach Williams. They are a stellar BET nominee. And as you can see at the four festivals that we have, you know, we've talked about the showcase. We talked about the jazz festival. We talked about the gospel night. And now we're talking about the Afro solo Latino. So there's no duplications with that. And then even, you know, I'm going to track back a little bit. You talked about tourism, right? We were one of 40 recipients in the nation through the Levitt Pavilion. If you remember Levitt back in the day when it was in Reservoir Park, our jazz festival was one of two cities in Pennsylvania that was named as a sponsor for the Jazz Under the Stars as well this year. So we're getting our name out there. We're getting out there. Our festivals and our nights are outstanding. The same marketing concept. We have all those in place. We're up to any questions, commissions. I mean, you know about our four programs and our activities that we have. We also, you know, as far as vendors, we almost ask for nothing because we like the vendors to have some kind of economic development with them. We charge like $25 for a vendor. Human service vendors, we don't even charge. We want them to come and do things for the community. The other thing, those nights are platforms for the commissioners. So Commissioner Douglas, Priest, Hartwick, if you have anything on your plate and wants to get that out to the community, that platform, that stage is yours to get that out. So those are things that are maybe different than the other concerts throughout the area. I mean, we're more of a people, people touch, touch, people feel good community and show that we have. We probably hire about 15 to 18 part-time people for our security and other details that they do for the summer.

Can I just ask?

Yes, sir. They're very similar applications. Can you express, like, the difference just because they're both applying? When I look at the Ops House one and then the Robert M. Jackson Veteran Center one, They're both listing the same events. So what are the differences? Or maybe you can explain for me kind of the separation.

There are two different events. I mean, there are four different venues of music, genres of music.

No, no, no. I'm sorry. I understand there are four different events. I'm saying the four events are listed on both applications.

Pops House is sponsoring two of those with the showcase as well as the Jazz Under the Stars performance. And Robert M. Jackson House will be sponsoring that. Yeah.

It's two different 501c3s. Okay. And that's why.

Just because all four of them are listed on each one. That's why I was just trying to understand.

Okay. I mean, it would have been easier if we could have put them together, but coming separate, you know, kind of. Understood. Okay, great. I have no other questions.

Oh, the city of Harrisburg, did they support this?

Yes. I mean, they supported the whole live music series with $25,000 in-kind services. Oh, for the whole series? Yes.

That's why it would have been simpler. So the series is split two shows that Pops House runs, two shows that Robert M. Jackson Veterans Center runs?

That was recommended years ago to come in that way. All right, thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Sankofa African American Theater Company, and on deck is Scholars Inc. Thrive Housing Service. Thank you so much.

Your picture.

Good afternoon. I'm really excited to be here. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Sharia Ben. I am the founding Executive Artistic Director of Sankofa African American Theater Company, and we are a professional African American-led nonprofit theater based right here in Harrisburg. And what you have before you is an example, an invitation to our celebrating 10 years of Sankofa African American Theater Company this Saturday. Dauphin County has been an important part of these last 10 years as you have supported us with the Black History Month programming, and also we have received tourism funding in the past for our production season. We've had 23 productions, six educational community engagement projects, over 18,000 students, and general public audience members served in our 10 years. I am here today to ask you to invest $75,000 in a project that will bring, in year one, we're projected 3,000 attendees to Dauphin County venues over our 26-27 season and generate an estimated $129,000 in direct visitor spending at Dauphin County hotels, restaurants, and businesses. We are the region's only African American-led professional theater company, and we've been producing historically grounded plays and community programs. So what this project means and what we are submitting, it runs, again, 26, 27. Our first $40,000 ask underwrites three main stage productions. covering venue rental, technical production, front of house staff, our artists are paid, our admin fees and production materials. And really what drives our season is our flagship holiday production, Black Nativity. And we are looking to do that at the Rose Lehrman Performing Arts Center. And this has become a regional tradition. The second thing ask is for $35,000 to fund a coordinated, very intentional regional marketing campaign, digital and social advertising, selective print, also billboards on corridors that connect Harrisburg to Baltimore, DC, New Jersey, Delaware. We're already getting traffic to our productions there, but we want to drive that, increase those numbers, and also get them to stay over. we are projecting that based on our past and projecting into the future that we will have about 1,200 people that travel in to see our productions from outside of Dauphin County and we conservatively estimate 15% of those are 180 visitors or We'll book overnight accommodations in Dauphin County hotels. We are getting a lot of ask for that when people purchase tickets. What can they do here? Where can they stay? This is a return of roughly $1.72 in direct visitor spending for every dollar the county invests. And that does not count the indirect spending, audience development, and long-term brand value to the county.

so my time is thank you thank you you you actually mentioned a lot of the tourism questions that we typically have related to the details so thank you for that um i i just want to say uh you're an amazing storyteller an amazing playwright i mean in in going you know year over year to uh to the plays that are happening here locally um that the commissioner sponsor and like I've been inspired, and I think this year specifically, even Commissioner Hartwick and I were there together, and we both just kind of looked at each other and were like, this could be on Broadway. This is really well done, and so thank you for the investment you've already made in our community by highlighting so much of the rich history here and being able to tell that story that captures even high school audiences, like seeing high schoolers captured by local history. I just don't know many regions that have people committed to the region in a way to be able to tell its story tell it well tell it in a creative way so thank you for that and thank you for presenting today thank you obviously saying cover theater it's just a phenomenal part we love you

Thank you very much. It means a lot to have your support. And we want to expand that love to those that haven't experienced it and continue it for those that are. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Scholars Inc. Thrive Housing Services is up. Next up after that on deck will be Timothy Webber. Yes, indeed. Whenever you're ready, you can start.

Good afternoon. My name is Dee Allen. I'm the Executive Director of Thrive Housing Services, and we provide housing and services for homeless youth, young adults, and their families. This year, we had the opportunity to have a donated building given to us for, located at 1122 North 3rd Street. Currently at that building, we applied for several grants, some from the city, some from the county, PHFA, and federal and state grants to finish the renovations on our building. Our building is going well. We are going to break ground on the renovations here starting in July. And within that building, we have three affordable housing apartments. We have a warming center that services youth and young adults from all over the world. We've had kids from Honduras. We've had kids come from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic. We've had kids from Afghanistan. We've had Nepali kids. So that warming center has been a station for a lot of kids that have experienced homelessness in the United States through whatever means they've gotten here. That center has been providing services for them. But what really we are going for right now is the co-op kitchen that we have. And our kitchen is called Connection Kitchen. It has a soup kitchen type of model. It's a pay what you can restaurant, but we are definitely steering away from the restaurant model and doing something very different. We have a lot of People from New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. that are going to come and participate in our co-op, which means they will come and use our restaurant, bringing people from their area and including people from our area to purchase food and to bring a different vibe to the Midtown area. In addition to that, we will be providing comedy shows. We will have paint and sips. We will be incorporating a kind of cook in the kitchen culinary arts program to be able to establish a sense of community, but also draw people to the Dauphin County area with a different type of experience in the kitchen. Our kitchen also during certain hours will be a pay what you can kitchen where the community can come in and get food, but they will also be able to partake of whatever co-op kitchen is available at that time. So what we are asking for is the $75,000 to be able to add some to our kitchen, but also to be able to expand the artistic culture on the side of our building to put a mural and make it more presentable and welcoming to the people that will be coming from outside of the area to participate in our program.

What portion of the grant covers the mural?

$15,000.

Are you working at all with, um, is it rocket that does the murals?

Is that yeah, so we, um, with the blueprint community and Allison Hill, we put an out for, um, a mural that we're doing in Allison Hill. And that did incorporate our mural as well, um, to be, uh. For people to bid and present what they'd like to do for our mirror as well.

And that RFP and 15 K would cover the mural costs.

Yes, that's correct.

Any other questions? First of all, I'm so proud of you, Dee, for a lot of reasons. With Brive Housing, I know Dee was a former probation officer here, but also a tech player in the city of Harrisburg, basketball league. But she's come back and done something that no one's done related to Brive Housing. and an opportunity for kids who are aging out of foster care to be able to transition through a home and dealing with homelessness within the city. I think you've done phenomenal work and had a vision for a long time and are helping partners with us in all kinds of areas of human services. So from my perspective, this was a project that I remember a long time ago that was sort of being pushed forward by Gary Tennis. Am I thinking about the same kind of project?

Yes, correct.

And how did it sort of where did it morph to? And again, from my perspective, I think it's a great idea, but maybe not necessarily for tourism monies, but for the CDBG and other bricks and mortar type of investment that may be able to be more conducive to this particular project. But how did the transition occur from where it was versus now being sort of in your hands?

the the building was donated to us um and we uh took the building as far as the kitchen we made a commitment to them to push forward the pay what you can restaurant um We added some things to it in a more creative way to make it a co-op kitchen so that there would be opportunities for different vendors and food trucks and them to experience using the kitchen, but also to provide different food experiences for homeless individuals to be able to take part in the kitchen as well.

Because you have a lot of experience in developing affordable houses and kitchen pieces in Newport.

The kitchen piece is a new one. Although we've had a lot of experience, this would be just expanding on the things that we already do in the community as far as food insecurity. We delivered over 3,000 meals last year to families in hotels that had kids that were referred to our program from the 11 school districts in Dauphin County. This would just be expanding the opportunity for us to provide it in a sit-down type of setting to be able to serve them with dignity instead of delivering a meal to their hotel room.

There's a lot of people that I know. Most people are unsung heroes. You're one of those people that grind and help and do all you can to be able to help our community, particularly our youth. And so I want to say thank you for all you do. Wow. Thank you.

want to echo commissioner hartwood's comments about the remarkable person you are and putting others for self 24 7. thank you for all you have been doing are doing uh yeah i i believe i don't know if tourism is the is the right area for the funding but certainly uh county funding uh is available we should be looking at that to try to assist you thank you thank you

Next up is Timothy Weber. On deck is Sol. S-O-A-L. Timothy Weber going once, going twice. Okay. We'll go to Sol. S-O-A-L. Saving our ancestors, Legacy Incorporated. S-O-A-L. And on deck is South Central PA Judo Foundation.

So I'm Maureen Davis. I'm with SOUL, Saving Our Ancestors Legacy. And we are asking for, what are we asking for, $99,000 to expand SOUL's Lincoln Cemetery is a Black Heritage tourism destination through restoration, digital storytelling, public history programming, descendant engagement, and visitor-ready site infrastructure. Lincoln Cemetery draws visitors through monthly restoration events, descendant and genealogical travel, university partnerships, media coverage, digital storytelling, and the planned Lincoln 150 American 250 gathering at the crossroads. Seoul is asking Dauphin County to invest in Lincoln Cemetery as a growing Black heritage tourism destination, not simply as a cemetery maintenance project. Seoul has already demonstrated that the site draws visitors, descendants, students, educators, preservation volunteers, genealogists, veterans families, media attention, cultural partners, and statewide recognition. The 2026 tourism grant would help sustain and expand the visitor-facing uh infrastructure required to keep excuse me to keep lincoln cemetery accessible dignified safe interpretable and active as a public history destination the areas that we're looking at forty thousand dollars to public digital archive and ancestral story telling tools twenty thousand towards restoration events and tourist facing enhancements Uh, 15,000 towards the link in 150 American, 250 gathering at the crossroads. Site on knowing 15,000 and 9,000 for limited general operating expenses. I'm not quite sure what else we're asking for other than 99,000 dollars. But as we. Recently, we received negative comments on the space itself in terms that the grass has gone unmowed this year because Wesley has decided to dissolve that partnership, so to speak. We're working with Wesley Union Cemetery and TFEC in order to get the grant, which is a grant that was designated funding for the cemetery, but it will not cover everything that we're trying to do at the cemetery, least of all getting the grass cut. So right now that is our main focus. This is, like I said, this is really not my forte. I just, I'm passionate about it. And I find it, that it's just a terrible state that we've gotten ourselves into in the cemetery because of lack of funding. to even get the grass cut is something that's you would think would be easy so as i said i'm here as a representative so but the people that really are digging deep into this is the president of soul or director i guess is what you call her Unfortunately, she's in Buffalo or on the road and I am here.

Representing well, thank you for being here and thank you for your commitment. Um, I'm going to ask some numbers if you don't have those, you can certainly have an email to us if if the director would be the better 1 to ask.

They sent them to me.

Oh, okay. Great. Um. Of the 99,000 dollars, how much is going to, like, market. Outside of the region to draw people here. To the, to the cemeteries for the historic value. Okay. Now that I do not know. Okay. That would be a question that would be helpful for me to know. Okay. The other question would be, do you track attendees at all? You know, it's, I guess it would be hard to track because they're not necessarily checking in somewhere, but do you have an idea of how many people attend annually. To the cemeteries or and how many of those might be from, you know, out of town.

um and if you don't that's fine you could certainly email us follow up okay yes I will I'm sure they have some numbers on that because we do have a um sign-in sheet for the number of visitors that show up so our restoration week our restoration

Restoration.

Restoration weekends are from March through November, the third weekend of the month. So during that time, we see a lot of visitors. But even without that, there are people that do come to visit. which we may not know about because it's not manned 24-7.

Yep, yep. Now, those are just helpful metrics to have to justify tourism. So if there's an opportunity to get those to us, you can email those over. But thank you for your commitment to seeing the legacy and certainly the Black heritage here in central Pennsylvania to be on display.

don't be so hard on yourself you did a great job you did a great job and and um for those who don't know and i think this has been live stream you have these work uh weekend weeks that folks can come in and talk about getting engaged in solving and being a part of your community i know you help cut grass you weed you try to prepare the cemetery markers uh and and to try to restore it to provide

some level of dignity and and um to those who are are historically buried in in lincoln cemetery correct so can you just give us dates real quick do you know the dates the it's the third weekend of each month like this month it is next it's actually this weekend coming up juneteenth weekend but it's the third weekend of every month friday through sunday

Is there a time specifically they should meet at the cemetery to get started or is it just show up?

I believe this weekend, Friday, it's 9 o'clock, but normally it's about 11 o'clock in the morning until, you know, the sun goes down or however long they want to stay for that day.

Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Next up is South Central PA Judo Foundation. On deck is South Central Pennsylvania Sickle Cell Council.

Okay. I feel like I should take a presidency here. I'm Jean Troy. I'm with Daza Development, but I'm representing South Central PA Judo Foundation. Thank you. It's good to see everybody again. The South Central PA Judo Foundation was established to teach kids what judo is and how they can take the discipline that's necessary to succeed in judo and transfer it over to their everyday life. We do that through camps, programs, trainings, and events. And it is for this particular project that we're asking for $7,500 to bring in world-class former Olympians and world-class judo athletes for a camp that's happening in August. And it is a camp. a memory a memorial actually to the founder's mentor who got him started in the art of judo so we're asking as someone said they were a small fish in the sea well we're kind of the same small fish we're asking for 7 500 to bring in these trainers and the effect on that will be local visitors 300 and you've got the families and things like that so it's a simple It's a simple request, but it means a lot to the kids and to the students and to the families and to the founder who want to continue providing these services to the children and the kids in Dauphin County. Although he does have a camp up in Schuylkill County, but primarily focuses in Dauphin County. So in terms of how it would be recognized through the grant, of course, it would be on every ancillary material saying that this Program has been sponsored in part with Dauphin County Tourism Grant funding and we um we understand that need I I totally get what is needed for when you ask those questions to everybody so it's a simple request but it means a great deal to those that are participating in it under three minutes, that's a record.

Good work, good work. Is there, how much of there, is there a tourism-like element to this? How much external out of- Out of the request? Well, no, I'm just saying, no, no, no, I'm saying like, How many people will be attending this from outside?

They expect to have 300 people attending, but when they bring, especially when you have people coming from Philadelphia, Jersey, California, and Baltimore and other areas.

That's what I was asking.

So they'll bring their families, and that includes 300 participants, but then I would estimate close to 500 to 700 people all around. We could get more, too, which is what we anticipate.

Is it a competition?

It's a camp where they learn different aspects.

How many days? One day or multiple days?

It's August 5th through 7th, I believe. 3rd through 7th, so it's four days.

So I didn't have all those details on my sheet. That's okay. So I apologize. Normally I have more. All right. That's all my questions.

Sure.

Oh, where's it held specifically?

It's being held at HACC in the P.E. Evans Center. One HACC drive. No?

thank you so much thank you appreciate you uh south central pennsylvania sickle cell council and on deck is special olympics pennsylvania inc howdy how we doing mr williams commissioner are you fine so great

Alrighty, my name is Glen Williams. I'm past president for the South Central Pennsylvania Sickle Cell Council. I'm here with Dr. Herman Lawson, our current president. First, I'd like to thank Dauphin County and the commissioners for the opportunity to speak today. and for your continued commitment to supporting events that not only bring visitors into our county, but also bring awareness to the important cause affecting families right here in central Pennsylvania. Today, I'm here to speak about our 10th annual Sickle Cell Golf Tournament, 10 Years Strong Swinging for Warriors Golf Classic, being held Friday, July the 24th at Dauphin Highland Golf Course. This year is an important milestone because we are celebrating 10 years of using this tournament to bring people together through golf, community, education, and support for our sickle cell warriors. We're expecting to exceed last year 60 golfers, with many traveling from outside of Dauphin County, including Maryland, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York, New Jersey. staying in local hotels, eating in Dauphin County, purchasing gas and supporting local businesses. Sickle cell disease is a serious lifelong and potentially deadly disease that affects individuals and families every single day. Many of our warriors deal with severe pain crises and hospital visits. That is why events like this are so important and grant opportunities are available. This event also will jumpstart our efforts leading into September, which is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Again, we'll have an annual walk for sickle cell awareness at City Island, expecting over 110 attendees. Last year, Commissioner Hartwick um joined us and spoke at our sickle cell awareness month press conference held in the capital rotunda showing dolphin county's commitment to recognizing and supporting our warriors last year we also celebrated our 30th anniversary at the best western premiere and union deposit area dolphin of dolphin county a dinner event with 200 attendees with visitors from Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Arizona, Philadelphia, and surrounding counties. We're not asking for a large amount of money. As a small organization, our funds are limited, and our support from this grant will help cover important expenses such as marketing, breakfasts for golfers and guests, lunch after the tournament, event material, giveaways, and overall experience for attendees. When we talk of marketing, our focus is bringing new people in Dauphin County. These funds would help support targeted social media, advertising, teaching golfers, supporters in Maryland, Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey and the surrounding areas.

Thank you. Of the 8,000, do you know what portion would be for marketing? About $1,000 or more, around that amount.

That's the extent of my questions.

Thank you very much for your commitment.

So, William, it's always good to see you. It's always good to see you.

And we want to thank the commissioners for their huge support.

There were several occasions.

In fact, one time, I stopped you on the street.

It's something that has been... and I know that we still don't have a cure. Right and I know there's so many people that are still struggling with the disease and continue to bring awareness is critically important for all. So, and Mr Williams and I, we, man, I've known we worked together in the Treasury Department 30 some years ago and you were an incredible human being and public servant and that multiple administrations and you certainly continue to be engaged in making a difference. So we appreciate you.