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The United Way of Delaware today announced a $5,000 donation towards The Grand’s Healthcare Front-Line Workers Holiday Challenge. The challenge, started by The Grand’s Board of Directors, aims to raise funds to send front-line healthcare workers in Delaware through the Winter in Wilmington Light Show for FREE. “The United Way of Delaware is proud to partner with The Grand to provide this small token of our appreciation for our frontline healthcare workers and their families,” said Dan Cruce, Chief Operating Officer of United Way of Delaware. “The response of our healthcare community in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of heroic. From all of us at United Way of Delaware, we say thank you, thank you, thank you and wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.” Mark Fields, Executive Director of The Grand, concurred, “We are so grateful to the United Way for supporting this idea. We launched this event to bring a little bit of joy and light into the community’s holiday, and nobody deserves that relief more than our health workers. The United Way has helped them and helped The Grand both with one gift.” This donation will allow 200 healthcare workers from four Delaware based hospitals to attend the light show for no cost to them. The four hospitals currently being supported are: • ChristianaCare • St. Francis Healthcare • Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children • Bayhealth Tickets will be distributed by the hospitals to their front-line staff. With this gift, the Grand board and several personal Facebook fundraisers have already raised over $15,000 to send health workers to the light show. Individuals interested in donating to the cause can make their own gift by clicking here. Corporations or small businesses that are interested in supporting this campaign should contact Kate Baker Frawley at 302-658-7897 x3204 or KBFrawley@grandopera.org. Tickets for the general public are on sale now and are $25 per car. They are available online only at www.TheGrandWilmington.org. To help make the event enjoyable for everyone, advanced online reservations/pre-purchased admission is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. The Grand is not accepting any in-person purchases at our box offices due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Performances run now through January 3, 2021, excluding Christmas Even/Day and New Year’s Eve/Day. Gates are open from 5pm-9:30pm. ABOUT THE GRAND For more than nearly 149 years, The Grand has been one of the region’s premier performing arts presenters, offering music, dance, comedy, and family-focused programming, along with the best of touring Broadway. The Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Opera Delaware, First State Ballet Theatre, The Rock Orchestra, and City Theater Company are all in residence at The Grand, presenting full schedules in each of their disciplines. Between The Grand, its resident performing companies, and rentals, the building hosts more than 300 events a year bringing more than 200,000 people into downtown Wilmington and through its doors. The Grand’s three theaters have been closed to the general public for indoor performances since March 12, 2020. That closure equates to over 100 performances lost, over $5 million in lost ticket and donation revenue unrecognized, and 60% of our staff laid off pending the distribution of a vaccine for COVID-19. Through the summer and fall months, The Grand’s remaining staff presented four drive-in concerts, 7 drive-in movies, and the Winter in Wilmington Holiday Drive-Thru Light Show. To learn more about our programming please visit TheGrandWilmington.org. ABOUT THE UNITED WAY OF DELAWARE Founded in 1946, United Way of Delaware (UWDE) works to advance the common good by focusing on three key areas: Early Education, College and Career Readiness and Financial Stability. UWDE is engaged in a long-term strategy to eliminate the root causes of the most pressing social problems in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex counties. UWDE is also responsible for the United Way brand in Salem County, New Jersey, where its activities are guided by the Salem County Advisory Committee of the UWDE Board of Directors. For more information or to support UWDE, visit www.uwde.org, follow us on Twitter @UnitedWayDE, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/UnitedWayofDelaware, or call (302) 573-3717.