It’s always open season for giving in Butler County. This weekend was no exception.

Audray Muscatello Yost, named Soroptimist International of Butler County’s Community Ruby Award winner, shared her experience of community service with the crowed gathered Saturday for the group’s Spring Fling fundraising event.

“It’s always significantly more than one person. It’s a group of dedicated people with great vision and perseverance who together have brought a tsunami of positive change to Butler County,” she said.

This weekend’s Spring Fling funds were raised to provided scholarship assistance to single mothers struggling to continue their education and funds to equip apartments for other single mothers fighting addiction, abuse and homelessness.

A little later in the afternoon, patrons gathered at Butler Area School District’s Fine Arts and Beyond Showcase to raise funds for the Golden Tornado Scholarship Foundation.

“My expectation of this community have always been high when it comes to this show,” Erich Campbell, art teacher and organizer, told the Eagle on Saturday.

In years past, the event has raised an average of $50,000 for the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation, the district's nonprofit organization for student scholarships and teacher grants.

Participants perused student art arranged along the halls of the Butler Intermediate High School while Butler band ensembles added rock and jazz numbers to the festive atmosphere.

Or if dinner and a show was more your style, the Butler County Leadership Class of 2022 hosted its annual murder-mystery dinner. Their evening of entertainment this year will benefit the Glade Run Lutheran Conservancy and the Food Institute at Butler Memorial Hospital.

More opportunities to enrich our community while enjoying the fellowship of others are available most every weekend. Benefits, golf outings, charity runs, performances and bake sales just scratch the surface of ways to support the vision of those dedicated people who are working to improve the lives of our neighbors here in Butler County and, sometimes, across the globe.

We encourage residents to seek out those opportunities. Open your wallets, hearts and minds. There are many ways to give, many ways to make a difference.

— DJS