Fingers tickled the ivory as the crowd of 250 sang with dueling pianos Howl2Go at the annual Let’s Make a Match event to benefit the Smoky Hills Community Foundation Saturday night at Ellsworth’s American Legion building.

“The month of October is our match month event,” said Deneen Urbanek, foundation coordinator. “The Dane G.

Hansen Foundation matches our funds. They will match 200 percent, up to $50,000.”

Saturday’s event raised almost $83,000.

“Just because we made the match doesn’t mean we’ve met our goal as a board,” said board president Amber Peschka.

In all, the goal is to raise $100,000 during the month of October from local donors. Last year during October, the foundation raised about $91,000. “We only do one fundraiser a year and this is it,” Urbanek said. “The event Saturday night is the only actual event for the entire year.”

The event kicked off a month of fundraising for the foundation, which manages $4.2 million in assets, Peschka said.

“The total grants and scholarships the foundation has given since inception is almost $1.7 million,” she said.

Money in the unrestricted fund is distributed across Ellsworth County in Lorraine, Holyrood, Kanopolis, Wilson and Ellsworth.

“It’s amazing to see the amount of requests increase every year. It’s becoming more and more competitive,” Peschka said. “Our biggest fund is the unrestricted community fund, which truly allows us to give back to the community and it doesn’t put restriction on type of project. If you’re a non-profit, education, government, church or religious, you can apply for a grant.”

The dueling pianos event included a live auction and raffle, as well as plenty of singing.

In all, the Smoky Hills Charitable Foundation has 38 funds.

“Funds means scholarship funds, organizational funds, donor advised funds,” Peschka said.

The community foundation has been around since 2000, but this is only its third fundraising event.

“It makes a difference. I think before we started doing an event, the foundation was heard of, but not known,” Peschka said. “I feel the event is starting to make a statement, people are starting to recognize the impact of the projects we’re able to support.”

Projects include improvements to the Santa Fe Depot in Holyrood, contributions to the splash pads in Ellsworth and Holyrood, community cleanup days in Wilson and Kanopolis and assisting with the Ellsworth County Sheriff Office’s K-9 officer training.

“Sometimes as a smaller community, things can be stale and projects don’t get completed because you need people, manpower to help complete the projects. The second thing you need is dollars,” Peschka said.

“We now have the dollars to support a lot of big projects, but it’s up to people to help see them through.”

Other project contributions include renovating the Ellsworth Fire Department’s lockers.

“Response time for those men on call drastically decreased because it’s all organized.

They’re able to get their gear on a lot quicker and head out the door,” Peschka said. “It’s important when you’re needing help.”

For additional information or to contribute during match month, visit the community foundation’s website: https:// smokyhillscf.org.