OTTAWA, Kan. - On Saturday, September 26, the Franklin County Democratic Party held a food drive in Ottawa. Country Mart, a local grocery store, was generous enough to allow the county party set up outside their doors. A group of dedicated local Democrats stood outside for six hours and collected an amazing amount of food, tolietries, and other household essentials. The drive benefited two Ottawa pantries, Hope House and ECKAN.
The community of Franklin County and Ottawa answered the call of help to those less fortunate. In such difficult economic times the volunteers received several large, generous donations. Through this food drive, the citizens of Ottawa displayed an amazing showing of giving and compassion to our fellow community members who need the donations.
Here are pictures of the food drive:
The food drive was held in conjunction with several other community service projects held by county Democratic Parties in their respective communities. The Franklin County Democratic Party evenly divided the donations between Hope House and ECKAN. While an official number has not been computed, we believe we collected a combined several thousand dollars of donations to both organizations.
This project was a wonderful experience and gave the Franklin County Democrats the knowledge that we live in a community that has empathy and compassion that crosses political boundries. We received an overwhelming positive response from people presumibily across the entire political spectrum. The mainstream media has presented the current social state of America as fractured and tense among various political parties, factions, and idealogies. At the very core, we all share communities, and most Americans are committed to the notion that a healthy vibrant community requires service to those in need.
I, Caleb Correll, the County Chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Party would like to thank everyone who made this project possible: The management and employees of Country Mart; From ECKAN, Lisa Rivers and Kristina Zhilkina; from Hope House, Mary Lois Yates; volunteers Kristy Webb, John White, Jonathan Oberg, Jacob Correll, Joan Vibert, and James Vibert. We also would like to thank The Kansas Democratic Party, the staff of Forward Kansas, the Kansas Young Democrats for their promotion of the event and the Ottawa Herald and KOFO for their coverage of our event.
What a great event and wonderful first post on KFP. It's just perfect.
Thanks for sharing this. It's very inspirational to see Democratic parties working to serve people. I love this and what you guys did.