T-L Photos/GAGE VOTA Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream employee Markiee McCormick scoops ice cream for customers at its St. Clairsville location.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Due to the recent catastrophic flash flooding in Wheeling, Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream has delayed this week’s celebrity scoopers charity event.

The event was originally planned to be from Wednesday to Friday and to see various guest scoopers battling it out via tip jar to raise money for United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley.

“Unfortunately, with all that has happened in the Wheeling area, we decided to cancel the event for now and are going to reschedule. We just have to figure out a time that is good for both of us so we can get these people back in here and raise the money for United

Way,” Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream owner and manager Judy Porterfield said. “We will definitely have it posted on our Facebook page here at the ice cream store and United Way will also have it posted on theirs.”

On Wednesday, the event was scheduled to kick off with the Wheeling Nailers, the Wheeling Lightning Birds and Harvey Goodman Realtor Karen DeRosa being the first group to go head to head for tip jar bragging rights. The second round would’ve seen St. Clairsville Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Wendy Anderson going up against Wetzel-Tyler County Chamber of Commerce Director Sharon Campbell and Harvey Goodman Realtor Alyssa Liebers fight for glory.

The event would have ended with Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack and Wheeling Police Department Maj. Josh Sanders facing off to see who would have the bragging rights over the other.

Although this week’s event was canceled, Porterfield is hopeful that the rescheduled event will see all of the same names and faces scooping their way toward providing money to United Way.

Following the decision, Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream took to social media to post the cancellation.

“Due to the unfortunate event that is happening in the Triadelphia area, we have decided to cancel the Celebrity Scoopers for this week. It WILL be rescheduled at another time. We will post as soon as we figure out the new time. Thank you for your understanding in this very sad situation,” the ice cream shop posted on social media.

Porterfield added that the decision wasn’t a happy one to make but once seeing the devastation in Wheeling she believed it was an easy choice.

“We love helping the community in any way that we can. And unfortunately, with all of this that is going on, it’s tough, but everybody’s just very close knit and it’s getting worked out,” she said. “They’ve had so much help with everything happening, and everybody has really came together to help out. Everyone from United Way has been down there helping them out. But we want to do whatever we can to help out with anything in the community, and help these guys raise money for all of the great things that they do.”