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| ’Tis the season to lend a helping hand |
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| News | |||
| Written by Aaron Cedeño | |||
| Wednesday, 23 December 2009 09:00 | |||
It was two weeks after Thanksgiving, and Sylvia Bostick was starting to get a little worried.  Since the Louisburg Lions Club took the reigns of the city’s Salvation Army Red Kettle efforts 11 years ago, the local collection total has grown steadily each year. With the economy the way it is this holiday season, Bostick was prepared for a slight drop-off. But at that point, she said, things were really down. In 2008, bell ringers, as they are affectionately known, raised $10,001.28 in Louisburg, and it was looking increasingly doubtful that total would be surpassed in 2009. That is, until Louisburg responded to the slow start in a big way — just like the city always does, Bostick noted. “I thought, ‘Oh, we’re not gonna make (our goal),’” said Bostick, the Lions Club’s bell-ringing organizer. “And then all of a sudden, it picked up again. They surprise me every year.” Today, she and the many volunteers who staff the red kettle at Price Chopper are in the home stretch, and she is confident they once again will top the previous year’s donation total. The effort is something that speaks highly of the quality of people in Louisburg, she said. So many are not only willing to donate, but also to pick up a bell and spend a few hours a week soliciting donations for a worthy cause. The Lions Club got involved in the Salvation Army holiday drive more than a decade ago, after a local family benefited greatly from the Salvation Army’s help. The family decided to fire up some bell-ringing efforts of its own, and the Lions Club offered to help fill in many of the available time slots. Things went so well, Bostick said, that at the family’s suggestion, the club decided to take on the task of organizing and executing the monthlong charity drive, and it has been doing that ever since. Of course, it’s not only Lions Club members who can be found outside Price Chopper from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. each day — a schedule that lengthens as Christmas nears. At this point, Bostick said, everyone from workers at local banks to members of church groups and individual volunteers know about the effort and want to get involved. This year, when the drive ends on Christmas Day, Louisburg volunteers will have spent more than 300 hours with a red apron and kettle. Local ringers in smaller communities such as Louisburg may not have the numbers of those in such largers cities as Olathe, Overland Park and Lenexa, but their impact is no less great, said Brian Carroll, director of service extensions for the Salvation Army in the region. Carroll is responsible for overseeing the organization’s work in 96 counties in Kansas and Missouri — 92 of them in the Sunflower State — without a local Salvation Army office. Last year, the organization helped 114,000 families in the extension service area and raised about $32,000 in Miami County alone. Carroll said the efforts of organizations like the Louisburg Lions Club and individuals such as Rob Roberts of Paola have helped make the Salvation Army’s efforts possible. The vast majority of all local money collected stays within the community, he explained, and Bostick said that was a consistent factor in Louisburg’s success. “When people see that it stays in Louisburg, they say ‘Oh, I’m so glad that it stays here. It makes me want to give more,’ and that’s important,” she said.
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