Market Common Veterans nonprofit to host 2 inaugural fundraising events
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — All the brainstorming is becoming a reality for Market Common Veterans, a local nonprofit organization set to host two new fundraising events starting Friday evening.
Organizers of the first-ever Bachelor Charity Auction and the 2024 Women’s Expo said the events are all for the greater good as they raise money for nearly a dozen local charities.
“I love being part of something that is bigger than me,” said Crystal Geldes, co-director of Market Common Veterans, which was founded in September 2023.
Paul Gonzales, the group’s chairman, said everything about the events is positive.
“When you unite charities in a fun, loving way, everybody wants to get on board,” said Tony Marra, the group’s creative director.
“This used to be the old Air Force base of Myrtle Beach, so there are a lot of veterans that stayed here, lived here,” Gonzalez said.
However, the group isn’t only for veterans.
“I’m not a veteran, I’m a veteran supporter,” Marra said.
The first event is the Bachelor Charity Auction. It is set for 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday at the General Robert H. Reed Recreation Center. Tickets are $10, and the event features a silent auction on purse packages and eligible bachelors.
“Each purse will represent each a nonprofit and the bachelor is supposed to go out and talk about their nonprofit, and that’s how they will mingle and get to know people because they have a passion for that nonprofit,” Geldes said.
The 2024 Women’s Expo will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the same location. There will be 40 vendors, live music, prizes, artistic collaborations and the popular sustainable fashion show “Compassion through Fashion” by New Directions of Horry County.
“It’s not just the vendors, it’s the whole neighborhood,” Marra said. “We have a community of magical people. I call them Market Common veterans, and I also call them fairytale characters –those people [who] believe that doing good can actually work.”
In order to make this all possible, hundreds of volunteers alongside Market Common Veterans are hard at work preparing for what they anticipate being large turnouts.
The expo is free and open to the public.
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Adriana Cotero is News13’s weekend evening anchor and a morning reporter. She joined the team in July 2023 after working in the island of Guam. Adriana is from Saline, Michigan, and graduated from Central Michigan University. Follow Adriana on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram and read more of her work here.
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