Submitted photo Emma Ruhlman fires a potato Thursday during the overhand portion of the Tater Toss at Betts Park.

Warren County flexed some potato guns on Thursday.

For the past several years, the United Fund Torchlight Campaign has kicked off with a potato-flavored event on Liberty Street at Struthers Library Theatre.

There was a variety of family fun – music and dancing, street performers, and a semi-serious potato peeling contest.

Then, for the price of a potato, visitors could get into a show.

This year, social distancing mashed those plans.

But, there is still a need to kick off the campaign. There are still 20 member agencies that rely on dollars from the United Fund to help them provide services to county residents.

So, Kickoff Event Coordinator Pat Evans knew the Kickoff Committee had to come up with alternate plans.

“In late spring, when the committee got together to do the event, the thought was, ‘we don’t want to go without it,'” Evans said. But, “if it’s not virtual, it’s not going to happen.”

So, they decided on something virtual. “It is a substitute for the on-the-streets family entertainment and movies in the theater that we had for six or seven years prior,” she said.

With support and inspiration from the folks at the theater, the committee put together a plan.

“We can start with comedy,” Evans said. “Let’s add some other entertaining vignettes and make a video.”

Of course, “everything involved potatoes,” she said.

There are four main parts to the video.

The first features somewhat short of world-renowned potato juggler Mark Evans.

That piece has a pretty natural segue into the comedy section.

Mark “spent some time juggling with Brody Connelly, who shows up later as a comedian,” Evans said.

“The comedians… we thought they would all be agency representatives,” she said. “We have seven or eight brief comedy routines with different individuals.”

Of course, the material is potato-related.

Evans said it’s possible that some not-flattering commentary from the peanut gallery will come through in the final version.

For the peeling competition, the organizers shucked off the outer layers from past years, keeping only a few of the best kernels.

“We brought back the potato-peeling contest with past winners Keith Price and Phyllis Wright,” Evans said.

Finally, on Thursday, what could be called the main course.

“I was looking for one more thing that had a bit more action and involved a cast of mentionables,” Evans said.

While thinking about what could be done semi-competitively with potatoes, she came up with the obvious choice – flinging them through the air.

The Tater Toss pitted some of the county’s supposed finest against each other in a winner-take-all event.

Evans started out the selection process well enough.

“I thought of Tom Tellmann first,” she said. “I thought of building a team from there.”

In a throwing competition, you can’t get a much better start. Tellmann spent five years as a pitcher in the major leagues.

Then, Evans wanted to represent athletes who, thanks to COVID-19, have missed out on some opportunities. She picked up a trio of talented young athletes all in one stop – Sam, Gracie, and Emma Ruhlman.

With the exception of nine-year-old ringer, Liam Hanson, it was all downhill from there – so much for the ‘mentionables.’

“We wanted to be silly… young women and twice as many older men,” Evans said.

There was some strategy.

At least one participant contemplated tossing a potato into the back of a passing truck and seeing if the judge would credit some additional distance.

The entertainment vignettes will be followed by the actual message.

“This is to bring awareness of the United Fund,” Evans said. “There will be a call to people to donate. We’ll talk about the 20 agencies that are supported in the community because of the United Fund.”

“We will have Lincoln Sokolski, immediate past president of United Fund board, and Lacy Hanson, Executive Director,” Evans said.

Now the pressure is on the production’s Technical Director Eric Morelli to bring the United Fund 2020 Campaign Kickoff Video together.

“We’re hoping that people will tune in at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, when it goes live all over social media,” Evans said.. “It’s our expectation that in addition to YouTube, the agency’s website and Facebook page will have it, and member agencies and participants will have it on their social media.”

Raising funds for the United Fund is serious business, but that doesn’t mean the Campaign Kickoff has to be.

“It was all meant to be fun and lighthearted, because some things this year are not,” she said.