United Way of Northwest Louisiana will host the annual Campaign Kickoff celebration, Thursday, September 21 to mark the official start of the 2017-2018 fundraising season. The event will take place at 11:30 a.m. inside the ballroom of Sam’s Town Casino.

The United Way fights to improve lives throughout ten northwest Louisiana parishes. Spokesperson Charnae McDonald told The Journal, “In recent years, we have made an extra effort to discover and fulfill the needs of residents in Coushatta and throughout Red River Parish. In doing so, we’ve hosted our first successful Back to School Bash event where we fed, clothed and prepared more than a thousand students for the new year.”
The featured speaker, Rod Demery, is a Shreveport native and face of a new show on Investigation Discovery. Murder Chose Me highlights murder cases solved by Demery as a Shreveport Police Detective. Demery is currently a Homicide Investigator with the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s office.

This event will also mark the end of Pacesetter season by honoring the companies who ran their fundraising campaigns early. They will be recognized with an award as a thank you for contributing to the $600,000 goal raised between June 1 and August 31. Bank of Coushatta is a new company on the Pacesetter roster for United Way NWLA. They will be one of nearly 40 groups to be recognized during the luncheon.

Tickets to this event can be reserved through Eventbrite for $35 each: http://bit.ly/2xSs7r3. Table sponsorships are available. Contact Catherine Simpson at 318-677-2504, Ext. 162 or Catherine@unitedwaynwla.org.