Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Camy Lake, right, a Bessemer high school junior and member of the National Honor Society, hands a box of food up to Ironwood freshman JROTC member Richard Green as they pack a truck Tuesday afternoon with food for a local food pantry with items collected by the Michigan State Police Wakefield Post's annual Harvest Gathering program.
By IAN MINIELLY
Wakefield - The Wakefield State Police Post, for the second year in a row, hosted a Harvest Gathering food drive to support local food pantries as part of a statewide effprt.
Area youth from the Bessemer Honor Society and Ironwood Reserve Officers Training Corps assisted in packing charitable food donations for St. Vincent's DePaul in Bessemer and Ironwood and the food pantry in Watersmeet.
The Wakefield office, in 2015, was recognized with the highest weight in food donations, coming in at 13,771 pounds. Surprisingly, this year the total came out to 22,071 pounds, for a gain of 8,300 pounds or 67 percent higher than last year.
Lt. Donald Horn expects the plaque recognizing the accomplishment last year to stay in Wakefield another year with this huge gain in giving.
Horn pointed out the effort of Super One as key to the effort, matching dollar for dollar the donations of local residents. Super One offered $5 bags of food to the public and then matched the $5 in food for a total of $10 per bag in donations.
The local students helping to load the food expressed positive attitudes regarding the opportunity to leave school and make a difference in their communities, based on their volunteer efforts.
Tim Rowe, a Bessemer Honor Society student, said, "It's fun helping the community."
Ironwood ROTC Battalion Commander Leah Braucher and Battalion Sgt. Major Erik Tervonen expressed how it was, "Good to see kids in the area helping out," while using their military bearing to discuss the organization required to equally distribute food to three different pantries.
The Ontonagon detachment saw a massive increase in giving, although it did not approaching the total in weight of Wakefield. Last year, Ontonagon raised 700 pounds and this year 2,000 pounds was raised for an almost 300 percent increase.
