Published: November 12, 2008 04:03 pm            

Tree of Lights collects $1,633 at roadblocks

By PAUL LORENZ

paul.lorenz@mcleansborotimesleader.com

McLEANSBORO — Volunteers collected more than $1,600 Saturday during Phase 1 of a local charitable group's annual fund-raising campaign, a spokeswoman said.

Tree of Lights raised $1,633 at a pair of "roadblocks" on Illinois Route 14 here, Cara Webb, coordinator of the roadblock project, said Monday.

Next up for the fund-raising campaign is its official kickoff event, the annual Thanksgiving Community Service, which starts at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 at Christian Chapel Church, located a mile north of the city on Illinois 242.

Tree of Lights is a year-round, all-volunteer effort to help people with immediate financial needs such as utility bills, medical bills or groceries. The group has helped more than 150 people this year after helping 170 the year before, its treasurer, Connie Miller, said.

This year's roadblocks came up a little short of last year's total of $1,735, but it was still "a good start for the first leg of this," Mayor Dick Deitz, a Tree of Lights volunteer, said.

Jason Moore, associate pastor at First General Baptist Church, will be the speaker at the Thanksgiving Community Service. The local ministerial alliance has pledged the offering collected that night to Tree of Lights, Deitz said.

Last year, Tree of Lights raised about $16,000, MIller said. Ninety percent of the money collected stays in Hamilton County, with 10 percent donated to the Salvation Army, which gives Tree of Lights “direct access” to the Salvation Army’s help in the event of a major disaster, Deitz said.

Twenty volunteers, plus emergency medical technicians and EMTs in training from Harre Ambulance Service, manned the roadblocks Saturday, Webb said.



GETTING INVOLVED

Tree of Lights is still seeking volunteers — individuals or groups — to ring bells for the third phase of its campaign, when Salvation Army collection kettles will be placed outside Food Park and Fred’s Pharmacy, Route 14 West, and Tom’s Priced Right, Route 14 East. The collecting will take place Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, 13 and 20.

For information, you may contact Rotarian Lucille Auten, bell ringer coordinator, at 643-3346.

        

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