Cleveland Vibes sends good vibes to East Palestine community with fundraiser

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - As the people of East Palestine work to recover from the train derailment crisis that has impacted their lives since Feb. 3, the people of Cleveland are stepping in to lend support in the form of a community fundraiser.

Dozens of people gathered at McCarthy’s in the Flats on Friday to do their part to help the families of East Palestine as they work to get back to some form of normalcy.

Cleveland Vibes, a digital media brand focused on improving lives by connecting locals to their city and to one another, wants to send nothing but good vibes to the East Palestine community by making sure they’re not forgotten.

Kaitie Nichol, who runs Cleveland Vibes, organized the fundraiser.

She told 19 News that 100% of the profits from food, drink, raffles, games, and shirt sales will go to The Way Station, a nonprofit in East Palestine supporting local families.

“We can assist somebody in their need today and so that we can raise awareness so that people don’t forget and don’t move on, and this stays on their hearts and minds of the people locally,” Nichol said.

The theme of the fundraiser was “Don’t Mess With Ohio,” but do take the time to offer a helping hand.

Nichols said, “It really broke our hearts to imagine ourselves in that situation of not being able to have clean water to drink, clean air to breathe and not to be able to provide your children with the feeling of safety in the midst of such chaos. It broke our hearts.”

So, this Friday night’s fun in Cleveland was focused on one goal: to ease the burden in the face of crisis.

Who better to help them get the donations to the goal line than former Cleveland Brown Hanford Dixon?

“Just wanted to be here, I wanted to support them to let them know they don’t stand alone - that we all, everybody pretty much here in the city, we’re for them and whatever we can do to make life a little bit easier for them, I’m all for that and that’s why I wanted to be involved,” Dixon stated.

Northeast Ohioan Jacob Harder, who appeared on the reality show “Married at First Sight...” said it’s important we all do our part.

“There’s people that can’t relocate and sell their houses, businesses. And I think that’s getting lost in all the clean up effort and everything else, we want to get the money directly to families,” said Harder.

Traffic Anchor Rachel Vadaj represented the 19 News Team as one of the celebrity bartenders helping to keep the spirit of giving flowing, with generosity traveling from Cleveland to East Palestine to let the community know that they matter.

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