Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
To educate the public about local service organizations and to raise donations and collect food for Combined Community Services, WRSW 107.3 is holding its first Food-A-Thon from 6 a.m. Monday to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Pat Brown, WRSW station manager, said, "We're going to have our first Food-A-Thon 2001 to benefit not only CCS but also educate the public about all the outreach programs that help the needy - Helping Hands down in Mentone, Our Father's House, The Salvation Army and, of course, CCS.
"We're going to try to get as many pledges as we can. We'll have a phone bank ... that will be staffed by members of Lake City Bank (CCS and the Warsaw Community High School honor club) and many other volunteers. ... We'll have interviews with different people from CCS and some of the other agencies and also business leaders in the community that support all those groups. For pledges of $50 or more, they receive the Food-A-Thon sweatshirt."
Everyone on WRSW will be pushing the Food-A-Thon. Dan Daggett and Christie Clark, WRSW's morning crew, will have interviews every hour. In addition, WRSW radio personalities Blake Miller, Matt Bair and Mike Rees also will push the food drive.
The idea for the Food-A-Thon came about from an experience Brown had in New York.
"For several years, I worked with a group up in New York - Hungerthon," Brown said. "It's something that I always thought we could do here for our organizations due to the fact that a year ago last February we ran into a situation where the food bank just was depleted, where they just had nothing. Within a 48-hour period, we had it back up and running through the power of radio. We made announcements and challenged people (to give)."
Dan Clay, CCS, said the Food-A-Thon comes at a good time, though the donations and food are needed year-round.
"It comes at a good time because people are more willing to give right now but every day people are hungry and every day people are going to have to ask for assistance for food. That's what they see as the barrier - food on their shelves. And we try to offer (them) various programs that we have at CCS, or if we don't have that program there, to refer them to an organization that will meet that need long-term," he said.
According to Brown, "I think the key, too, is, I don't think a lot of people know who your average demographic is. Average demographics for CCS are a man and woman in their mid-30s who are both working, with a couple of kids. This organization, CCS, doesn't just give hand-outs to deadbeats."
Clay agreed. He said, "The hand-out concept is just not valid in these times. We offer tools for them to be self-sufficient."
Another reason the food and money drive is needed now, Clay said, is because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Everyone sent donations to New York, and that hurt local agencies.
Clay said, "We did a comparison from last year from Sept. 11 through Oct. 31 (compared) to this year, same time frame, and (the food bank) was down 54 percent. We're just starting to feel the effect. We usually run a little ahead of schedule. And we started running in the red ... in September because of the fall-off. That usually gets caught up by Christmas time through donations.
"... If we don't have the resources to serve people, they don't come. If they don't come, they're left without the proper tools to come to fruition. There are a lot of organizations in this area that are in the business of helping people, but (the public) doesn't know about them. ... A lot of people come in without a clue there is somewhere else to go."
Brown said, "The whole idea behind this Food-A-Thon isn't just to get pledges and money, but to (also) educate the public as to how they can get involved to help people. Plus, with overtime being cut back and factories going from five days to three days, it's harder for people to make ends meet. We need to educate the public to let them know that there's nothing to be ashamed of to go to one of these organizations and ask for help and how they can get help if, in fact, they need it. In a country that's as prosperous as this one, the fact that a child should go to bed hungry is the very definition of obscene."
Petro's GM Showplace will help pick up food donations. Other local businesses involved in the Food-A-Thon include Owens, Creighton Brothers, Sprint, Da-Lite, Biomet, Penguin Point, R&G Auto, Reneker's Sport Shop and Kosciusko Community Hospital.
There is no set goal this year for the Food-A-Thon, since it is the first year.
"When we did the coat drive," said Miller, "we didn't have a goal and we had no idea how (many) coats we'd get." WRSW collected more than 1,300 coats. "So we never had a set goal and we never - in my wildest dreams - never thought we would get as many coats as we got. And when we did the penny pitch, I never assumed we'd get $3,000."
"When we call on the community, we never set a goal," said Brown, "because every time they just surprise us with what they do. And it's usually more than we could have ever conceived in our own minds. ... We truly do live in the best community that I know of."
To make pledges or donations during the Food-A-Thon, call 269-9004 or drop it off at the station or at CCS.
