Live Casino seeks to connect with community through 3-day block party
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Live Casino will host a three-day carnival at the end of the month as part of its Live in the Community campaign.
The Live in the Community Block Party will take place from Friday through Sunday in the casino parking lot at Westmoreland Mall, 5256 Route 30 in Hempfield. It will feature carnival games and rides, live music, a beer garden, food trucks, children’s activities and more than 70 local artisans.
Live music will include Rolling Stones cover band Jumping Jack Flash and ’80s hair metal cover band Mullett. A screen will show the Pittsburgh Steelers game on Sunday.
There will also be a fireworks display in the evening Friday. Hempfield Township will host the children’s activities.
A 5K race that was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Saturday has been canceled. A message on the Hempfield Township website says organizers “hope to try it again another time at a different location. Those who signed up will be issued refunds.”
The Live in the Community campaign seeks to connect the casino to its surrounding communities through volunteer work, sponsorships and events.
“When we come to a community, we want to be partners,” said Sean Sullivan, executive vice president and general manager for Live Casino Pittsburgh. “We want to be job creators. We want to be tax creators. We want to lift the communities that we’re in.”
The campaign requires that Live employees with a director position and above be a member of at least two nonprofit organizations, Sullivan said.
The campaign also includes the casino’s Ticket In, Ticket Out program, which allows customers to donate the remaining money on their play tickets to a charitable organization, such as Habitat for Humanity and Toys for Tots.
This initiative typically generates $6,000 to $8,000 per quarter, Sullivan said.
The campaign feeds into the state Gaming Control Board’s goals for its entities to support local businesses and organizations owned by women and minorities.
The board monitors the casino’s quarterly reports to see how much of its revenue goes toward these types of businesses.
“There isn’t a biblical statement that you must spend x, but there is a very high expectation that we do,” Sullivan said. “If (the board) sees that we’re not doing those things, believe me, the phone will ring pretty quickly.”
Good weather, safety and “fun and excitement” are the goals for the event, Sullivan said.
“We want all of the shareholders and participants in the event to think ‘I can’t wait until next year,’” Sullivan said.
Quincey Reese is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Quincey by email at qreese@triblive.com or via Twitter .
