
After a recent food drive, George Mammarella of Economy Auto Sales presented Community Services of Starke County Diector, Joan Haugh, with a cash and food donations of over $1,200 for the Starke County Food Pantry.

A big thank you goes out to many people from the Knox Kiwanis Club. President, Todd Wallsmith, was in Wednesday to thank Knox Community Schools, Knox High School teachers, Dean’s Food of Rochester, the Knox Center Township Fire Department Auxiliary, Community Services of Starke County, the SCILL Center, and members of the Kiwanis, among others.

The Starke County Community Foundation made the holiday bright for many community organizations during its 2010 Grant Award Banquet. Over $24,000 was awarded on Monday, December 6th at the Community Center in Knox.
The grants are part of the Community Foundation’s Unrestricted Funds which allow the Community Foundation to assess the greatest needs of the community and assist the individual agency programs. Since 1998, the Community Foundation has awarded over $1.7 million to local organizations and projects that make a difference in Starke County.

The instructors and students at the SCILL Center in Knox recently held a coat drive for those in need this winter season. The coats were delivered Thursday to the Community Services of Starke County building where they will be distributed.

Members of the Knox Student Council, National Honor Society and dedicated volunteers assembled food baskets, Thursday, at the Community Services of Starke County building for the less fortunate families in Knox. Students and members of the Knox Kiwanis Club will distribute food to those families in Knox.

The Community Services of Starke County general membership meeting will be held on Thursday, December 16th at 8:30 a.m. CT at the facility. The public is invited to attend but only regular members will be entitled to vote on program plans and the Executive Board appointees for 2011.

The SCILL Center staff and students are collecting coats for children and adults this holiday season.
“Anybody that has a good, used coat that they’d like to drop off, rather than take to Goodwill or put in a yard sale, you may donate it during this coat drive,” said SCILL Center Instructor, Mark Anderson. “In Knox, you can drop them off at Community Services of Starke County, Davis Auto, Integrity Skill in the Knox Mall, Starke United, or the WIC office. In North Judson, you can drop them off at Love INC., Bailey’s, or there’s a box at the North Judson Plaza. When we accumulate all of the coats, we’re going to take them to the Knox Schools and they have names of people throughout the community and a lot of students that need these coats and they’re going to disburse them. We’d like to try and end the program on December 5th.”
For more information, call (574) 772-8001.

The totals are in from this past weekend’s food drive at the Knox Mall. WKVI collected $2167.73, and 1,469 pounds of food. Added to that total of food is 1,125 pounds from Boy Scout Pak #281 in North Judson for a total of 2,594 pounds of food. A big thank you again from Joan Haugh and everyone at Community Services of Starke County who received the money and food for their food pantry.