The United Way of Wayne County kicked off NC Freedom Fest on Thursday evening by hosting its 33rd Annual Taste of Wayne in downtown Goldsboro at The Hub.
The event began with on-air personality Jeff Farrow, from 98.3 FM WGBR interviewing vendors. live interviews with vendors from Curtis Media Group.
Farrow was later joined on the stage by Daniel Baynes and 581 South. The band played live music throughout the event and continued to help promote United Way and the many vendors who came out to help make this year’s Taste a success!
There were food and beverage entities from all over Wayne County. Included in those were Gents’ Bounty BBQ, LLC, Great Harvest Bread Company, Beekeepers of the Neuse, Legacy Cakes & Courtesies, Zaxby’s, Texas Roadhouse, Cry Freedom Missions Café, Hydrant Church, De’Mantra India Tandoor and Curries, Stormberg Foods, Taylor’s Farmstead, Sunset Slush of Wayne County, Culligan Water, and R & R Brewing. United Way of Wayne County could not be more thankful for each of these small businesses for their support and participation.
To taste all the wonderful treats these vendors had to offer, attendees bought a “passport” with every vendor listed and took that to each booth.
A volunteer was located at each booth to mark that vendor off the attendee’s “passport” who was then rewarded with a generous sample of a delicious food or beverage treat.
At the end of the “tour,” the attendees used ballots to vote for their favorite booth in four categories.
The votes were counted at the end and a first-place People’s Choice Award winner in each category was announced.
The Best Main Entrée winner was De’Mantra India Tandoor & Curries, the Best Side Dish winner was Gents’ Bounty BBQ, LLC, the Best Beverage winner was Hydrant Church, the Best Dessert winner was Legacy Cakes and Courtesies.
The United Way of Wayne County is grateful for all the volunteers who helped make the event possible. Thank you to the United Way of Wayne County Board Members, Events Committee Members, United Way Loaned Executives, and Wayne County residents for all you did to help make Taste of Wayne possible and enjoyable for everyone attending.
In addition to Taste of Wayne, the United Way also kicked off this year’s Community Campaign at the beginning of the event.
Board Chair, Bernadette Carter-Dove, welcomed everyone for coming to the kick-off and thanked the many restaurants, community members, volunteers, and United Way staff and board members for attending and helping us celebrate the start of this year’s Campaign. Carter-Dove then passed the microphone to Campaign Chair, Selena Worrell.
Before Worrell got to the exciting announcements, she shared the United Way mission and the message being spread all over Wayne County.
“Since 1925, we’ve been partnering with community members to help improve lives in Wayne County,” Worrell said. She then announced that the campaign goal for 2024 is to help rewrite the stories for 17,000 people by raising $850,000.00.
This year, many businesses and organizations have completed their workplace campaigns early to help take the first steps toward reaching that goal.
Those Frontrunners include: Caterpillar Fluid Transfer Solutions, Inc, County of Wayne, Crawford-Henderson Insurance, Goldsboro Builders Supply, Franklin Baking Company, Jackson & Sons, Mount Olive Builders Supply, North Carolina Community Federal Credit Union, Partnership for Children of Wayne County, Southco Distributing Company, Turner Tanks, Realty & Insurance Company, Inc., and Worrell Contracting Company, Inc. After recognizing those Frontrunners, it was time to make the big announcement about the current progress of the campaign.
Worrell opened the envelope with the results and exclaimed, “Thanks to the early support of these Frontrunners, we are kicking off our 2024 Community Campaign at 25% of our goal!”
Once the excitement and cheers quieted, it was time to draw the first three finalists for the 2024 Fair Share Challenge giveaway. For the sixth year in a row, an anonymous donation, separate from the campaign funds, has been given to United Way of Wayne County as an incentive to those who give their Fair Share.
A Fair Share is a pledge of one hour of pay donated per month for the year 2025. Those first three names drawn last night, at the Campaign Kick-off were Ron Carter, Jackson & Sons, Jamie Hare, Caterpillar, and Ronald Robinson, Soutcho Distributing Company.
Seventeen more names will be drawn over the next three months live on WGBR and will be joining Ron, Ronald, and Jaime at the Fair Share Challenge Giveaway Finale where one of them will be lucky enough to win $10,000.
The Community Campaign is vital to the success of positively impacting 17,000 lives right here in Wayne County.
Through the Community Campaign, United Way of Wayne County is able to financially support local programs and address emerging issues and natural disasters. For a full list of funded programs and 2023 Major Investors, visit, untiedwayne.org.
