WRSW 107.3's first Food-A-Thon raised more than $10,000 in pledges in 36 hours for Combined Community Services earlier this week.

"It was an outstanding community effort," said Pat Brown, WRSW station manager, Friday. "We had one couple from Winona Lake give a $1,000 donation."

Several orthopedic company workers took up collections at their businesses. Amounts ranged from $100 to $500.

In addition, three trucks were filled with food donations. Brown said, "It was just unbelievable. ... The generosity was just absolutely overwhelming."

Jim Coons, CCS executive director, said, "The thing I think is so important about the fund- raiser is that it was a wake-up call for the community not to forget the local charities." He said judging by the donations, the community agreed local charity is important.

The Food-A-Thon was held from 6 a.m. Monday to 6 p.m. Tuesday. The purpose of the Food-A-Thon was not only to raise donations and collect food for Combined Community Services, but also to educate the public about local service organizations, such as Helping Hands, Our Father's House and The Salvation Army.

The phone bank was staffed by Warsaw Community High School students and employees of Lake City Bank and CCS. Sprint provided the phone bank.

During the Food-A-Thon, interviews with local service agencies as well as local community leaders were held every hour.

Petro's GM Showplace helped by picking up food donations. Other local businesses involved in the Food-A-Thon include Owens Supermarket, Creighton Brothers, Da-Lite Screen Co. Inc., Biomet Inc., Penguin Point, R & G Auto & Truck Repair Inc., Reneker's Sport Shop and Kosciusko Community Hospital.

Brown said to raise that much in pledges and donations in such a short time was great. "The people in this community are outrageous," he said. Most of the donations came in the last 12 hours of the Food-A-Thon.

"As of 5 Tuesday morning, we had plenty of food but only $1,800 in donations," said Brown. As the day went on, however, and more interviews with the service agencies aired, the donations began to pour in. "We raised a majority of that from 5 a.m. Tuesday morning to 6 p.m. that evening."

Coons said the $10,000 raised was great, "particularly on the first day when I saw how things were going, I thought $5,000 would help." By the end of the Food-A-Thon, when the total was more than $10,000, he said, he was "thunderstruck."

Next year, Brown said, the station plans to have the Food-A-Thon again. "We hope it'll be bigger next year," he said, though he said it would be great if there was no need for the Food-A-Thon.

Last year, Coons said, through October, CCS had 2,500 families come in for help. This year, they've had 7,500. And along with the number of families going up, the size of the families has also increased from 2.7 members average per family to 3.6 members. "That drains the pantry fast," said Coons.

Along with helping families meet their emergency needs, Coons said, CCS works with them for a long-term solution through their various programs, such as Wheels to Work and Project Independence. [[In-content Ad]]