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1. Decatur Food Drive A Success

Herald & Review, January 25, 2008
DECATUR - Maj. Mickey Hale's eyes actually popped wide when he heard the size of the check The Salvation Army would receive from the WSOY Community Food Drive: $21,000.

WSOY's Brian Byers grinned as he handed the check to Hale and stepped back to let Hale speak to the assembled adults and schoolchildren at St. Patrick Catholic Church on Thursday.

"I'm overwhelmed," Hale said. "It's more than twice as much as last year. Thank you, thank you. This will help a lot of people in Decatur."

Kevin Breheny, a co-organizer of the food drive, said jokingly to Catholic Charities' Marie Rademacher that her organization was only getting $5,000, but Catholic Charities also received a check for $21,000.

"The words 'thank you' are very small words," Rademacher said. "Maybe if you keep in mind the many families that are getting the food they need, and the kids going to school with breakfast in their tummies, 'thank you' will seem like big words."

The annual food drive in October netted a record 267,740 pounds of food to be donated to Decatur food banks, Byers said, and more schools participated this year than ever before, too.

"What we do takes one day," Byers said. "What (the community) does takes maybe a month of collecting, but The Salvation Army and Catholic Charities are out there every single day. They're the true heroes."

The first-place school was St. Patrick, with 41,011 pounds of donated food. The school's principal, Jan Sweet, accepted a $2,500 check for the school. Second place, winning $1,500, was Holy Family, with 27,425 pounds of food; third place, Our Lady of Lourdes, awarded $1,000 for collecting 26,585 pounds of food; fourth place, St. Teresa High School, awarded $750 for collecting 14,371 pounds of food; and finally, Lutheran School Association, $500 for collecting 12,989 pounds of food.

Business sponsors including Skeff Distributing, Team Soy, Ticket 'n' Trips, Jones & Thomas, Decatur Back & Neck, Kroger, WAND-TV and Archer Daniels Midland Co. contributed enough cash to cover the award money given to the winning schools. Community cash donations went to the charities.

"Good Neighbor" award winners were First Christian Church, 2,562 pounds; Decatur Park District, 2,933 pounds; and Millikin University, 3,419 pounds.

President Doug Zemke and public relations director Bryan Marshall of Millikin personally delivered the university's contribution, Byers said, while First Christian Church members manned the telephone lines to accept contributions during the food drive.
Copyright, 2008, Herald & Review, Decatur, IL