The Times West Virginian

Opinion

March 3, 2010

Community generosity shines during ‘Gift of Love’

Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT — Did you ever see something that just made you feel good all over and that all is right with the world?

You probably have, at one time or another. But down at the Times West Virginian, we enjoyed that rare feeling Monday afternoon. That’s when a good portion of the food collected out in the county for the Gift of Love food drive arrived at our building for distribution today.

And where did this food come from?

A good part of it came from White Hall Elementary School.

What a great job principal Mike Williams, teachers and staff, as well as a grandparent volunteer, did at White Hall to generate interest in this food drive. They did it last year and they perhaps doubled their quantity this year. Everyone who saw it came in shaking their heads and uttering such words as “amazing,” “unbelievable,” “surprising.”

We can understand, with all the different drives going on these days, that another food drive might just pass over the heads of many students. But for those K-4 students out at White Hall Elementary, they listened to their teachers and understood that there were many Marion Countians who were hungry and the shelves at some of the food pantries were getting quite bare. There was a competition at White Hall, and the two third-grade classes taught by Kathy Wade and Nancy Farley were the winners.

While we have to stop and honor a great group of kids for their work, we also have to report that our project in its second year was overwhelmed with donations. We have no way to measure the exact amount, but employees of the newspaper spent a great deal of time Tuesday sorting through donated canned items, boxes of cereal, jars of peanut butter and jelly and too many varieties of food to list.

And all those who participated in the sorting process agreed that this year, by far, the amount of donations exceeded last year’s inaugural effort.

We want to thank the entire Marion County community for taking part once again in the Gift of Love food drive. We know times are tough and numerous agencies are depending on the food generated by our drive to help get them through the final weeks of an extremely hard winter. Even during the cold and snowy weather of the past few weeks, people would find their way to the Times West Virginian to leave their food supplies. This also was very heartening.

We thank those caring citizens for that. And the needy people of Marion County thank them also.

 

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