July 14th, 2021 by WCBC Radio

A big turnout for the Memorial Day Monday Del McCoury Band concert at Cumberland’s Canal Place has resulted in charitable DelFest Foundation donations to two local non-profits.

Foundation Treasurer Matthew Scarpelli and DelFest Community Liaison Barb Buehl recently presented checks for $5,000 to County United Way and $1,000 to the Western Maryland Food Bank, resulting from vending and contribution tip jars at the free May 31^st event. The Food Bank also received 456 pounds of contributed dry goods collected by Del’s Army at Memorial Day Weekend events at B-Chord in Lessburg VA and Cumberland.

“When the DelFest Foundation got word that the McCoury family wanted to do a free show in Cumberland on Memorial Day, we quickly connected with McClarran and Williams, CUW and the Food Bank to assemble a team to promote and stage the Canal Place show,” Ms. Buehl commented.

“The City of Cumberland and Canal Place made early commitments to make the event possible and Dave Williams, Dave Love and Bob Mayhew jumped on board to add their promotion and logistics experience,” she added.

Multiple award winning mandolin star Ronnie McCouryinitiated the idea of donating the Del McCoury Band’s performance on the traditional weekend of DelFest and was quickly supported by the DelFest Foundation organizing team, as well as staff from Cumberland’s public safety departments and Canal Place grounds staff.

According to treasurer Matthew Scarpelli, the DelFest Foundation has now contributed over $850,000 to local Allegany County charities during its existence.

“We were very excited to partner with these two charities so that field vending saleson Memorial Day could provide direct help to the non-profit community – in addition to the economic impact of a big crowd in Downtown Cumberland for the event,” Scarpelli concluded.