If you are looking for a way to truly usher the Christmas spirit into your life you are about to have an opportunity.
The East Ridge Needy Child Fund is looking for volunteers this year to help assist less fortunate people in the city over the holidays, and throughout the year.
Mimi Lowrey, the new chairperson of the organization, said the NCF is desperately in need of people to assist in the effort. Lowrey said volunteers are needed in several areas, including conducting interviews with people who want to be beneficiaries of the NCF, shoppers to go out and buy clothes, toys and other items which will be distributed this holiday season, and folks to help sort, organize and distribute those items.
Lowrey said that applications have gone out to the city’s elementary schools for people who need help this season. The Needy Child Fund has a little money in the bank and a reasonable stock of clothes and items for those less fortunate. The issue now is getting the manpower to deliver on a tradition of helping those less fortunate that goes back well over two decades.
In the past, the City of East Ridge helped fund the Needy Child Fund through its annual budget. A core group of firefighters and their wives provided the lion’s share of manpower to make the Needy Child Fund a success. The ERFD did a “Santa’s Train” delivering Christmas gifts and essential everyday items to needy families the week of December 25.
All this changed last year, as city officials required the Needy Child Fund be run by non-city employees. City officials also required that the NCF obtain an official non-profit status.
A board of directors was formed for the NCF, consisting of Lowery, Bart Burns, Debbie Colburn, Aundie Witt, Mary Lambert, Tommy Roe, Ora Citty, Patricia Cassidy and Stephanie Moschkau. There have been a handful of NCF meetings, Lowrey said, and the organization is on its feet and will continue the tradition of generosity in East Ridge.
“We need volunteers to make this happen,” said Lowrey, who was involved in the NCF as a city employee in the mid-1990s. “We need people to sort items for boxes and possibly distribute to the needy.”
Lowrey said she is unsure of the extent of involvement of the East Ridge Fire Department in this year’s effort. The firefighters have traditionally used the “Santa Train,” a firetruck with a police escort to distribute packages to the needy a few nights before Christmas.
If you want to become involved in the East Ridge Needy Child Fund, e-mail Aundie Witt at [email protected]. If you need more information about being a beneficiary of the East Ridge Needy Child Fund e-mail Mimi Lowrey at [email protected].
