Event sponsored by Rotrary Club, Kingwood Lions, Volunteer Fire Department and Buckwheat Express
KINGWOOD — Pack the Bus, an event sponsored by the Kingwood Rotary Club, Kingwood Lions, Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department and Buckwheat Express, brought in more than $3,000 in donated items and $5,340 in monetary donations, Sunday.
Kerry Gnik, president elect of the Kingwood Rotary Club, said she was impressed by the amount of donations.
“People were very generous,” she said. “A lot of people brought in food and money.”
Tammy Laney, Director of Food for Preston (FFP) agreed.
“Many thanks to everyone for making our annual Pack the Bus possible despite COVID,” she wrote in an email. “Our no-contact drive-thru format worked great. We had a steady stream of donations throughout the day that filled all the bus seats with food and collected monetary donations in three ways, on site, online and by mail.”
The project collects food and donations for the backpack program. The backpack program sends food home with needy students for the weekend.
Pack the Bus was started by the Rotary Club of Kingwood in 2013 at the urging of the late Michelle Wolford, a columnist and reporter for The Dominion Post who was president of the Kingwood Rotary. Wolford died of pancreatic cancer in July 2015.
“It’s a great event Gnik said. “My husband and children volunteer with me.
She said her reason for joining the Rotary Club was to teach her children to volunteer. Pack the Bus is one of the ways they can do that.
Gnik said other Rotarian volunteers brought their children to help also.
She said a new program is the Junior Rotarian program for children 18 and younger.
Gnik said at the end of the year a certificate is awarded to each Junior Rotarian showing how many hours they volunteered.
She said not only does volunteering help the community it can help when younger volunteers apply for college or for their first job.
By volunteering for Pack the Bus, younger volunteers are also helping their fellow students.
“We’ll continue to feed Preston County students as in-person and virtual school begins this fall,” Laney wrote. “Thank you for working together to fight hunger.”
According to FFP’s website, it serves more than 300 students each week, distributing over 12,000 bags of food throughout the school year.
Each bag sent home with a student for the weekend includes two breakfasts (for example, a granola bar and breakfast bars), two lunches (tuna and crackers, and chicken and cracker packs), two dinners (canned beef stew and canned ravioli), and two snacks (pudding cup and fruit cup).
Credit card or Paypal donations can be made at foodforpreston.org or by checks at Food For Preston, P.O. Box 1175, Kingwood, WV 26537.
For more information contact Food For Preston at coordinator@foodforpreston.org or 304-379-3519.
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