Big thank you to the Lincoln Junior High students and their food drive donations for the month of February. 

They collected more than 2,800 individual food items! This is enough canned and dry goods to feed 300 families for a month. 

We want to thank them for their amazing genrosity! We are also grateful for teacher Sarah McKenzie, who organized the campaign; and for Mr. Funsten, who is rewarding these students with an ice cream party.

Thanks Lincoln - You set a great example for our community!  Keep up the great work.

We want to send a big THANK YOU to the Bremen Community and their annual 'Mom-to-Mom' sale. All of the leftover children's apparel and items were made available as a donation to the Neighborhood Center and helped provide needed kids' clothing for our clothing pantry.

Our Clothing Pantry hosted a "Shop 'Til You Drop" Event recently, as a way to clear out our seasonal inventory. Volunteers Marcia Pownell and Sharron Yambrick worked tirelessly to see that clients found just the right items to take home. We distributed over 2200 items of clothing, shoes, and household linens and now have room for all of our fall and winter items.

The Neighborhood Center is so appreciative of Beacon Credit Union for sponsoring the Project Spotlight and for all of the community members who voted. We are especially grateful for Heather King, who took initiative, got involved, and advocated for our organization, and ultimately, the families we serve.  Our thanks to all!

2011 Project Spotlight Winners Announced

Beacon Credit Union is proud to support every community we serve.

Project Spotlight is a program created to discover and support worthwhile projects in each community that Beacon serves. Our hope is to be able to support community projects both large and small, and bring awareness to the many good things happening in our communities every day.

The Winners of Marshall County
As determined by member voting, the following organizations were chosen from each community to receive funding amounts of $1000, $500 and $250 (1st, 2nd and 3rd place).

1st - Marshall County Neighborhood Center
2nd- United Way of Marshall County
3rd - Saint Joseph Health Center

The Marshall County 4-H Junior Leaders chose The Neighborhood Center for their September community service project and we are grateful for all of their hard work. 

Over 20 members attended, and with big smiles and determined attitudes, they helped unload, sort, and stock 1,600 pounds of food for the Center's pantry! They also cleaned our building and helped move items to storage. 

We are grateful for the act of volunteerism our local community group demonstrated and we share in the 4-H vision that is, "a world in which youth and adults learn, grow and work together as catalysts for positive change."  

We would like to thank Ancilla College for hosting their first annual Community Engagement Fair, on September 13th through 14th. We really appreciated the invitation to join students and faculty at their beautiful campus. Over the course of two days, we were able to share information about volunteer opportunities at MCNC, and in the coming months, we look forward to seeing student-volunteers in our pantries and holiday programs.

We are delighted to inform you that MCNC was approved for a 3M corporate giving grant. Today we received a check for $2500!

3M has shown a great deal of interest in supporting The Neighborhood Center. They hosted a very successful employee food drive in April, which brought in about 700 pounds of food. In July, Amber Moulton, Human Resources Field Representative, invited us to apply for a one-time grant through 3M's community giving plan. 

If you have a friend or contact with 3M, please be sure to express our gratitude for this grant award.

We would like to introduce a new ongoing post titled, "Thanks for Shining!" where we spotlight  some of the special people who have gone above and beyond to help our mission. MCNC recognizes the personal attention and dedication our donors, volunteers and board members provide. We'd like to announce this summer's selection of individual spotlights and share a bit more on why we are glowing with appreciation for their support and service. 

Donor Spotlight: Angela Ridenour

Earlier this year, Angela Ridenour of The Biography Spot donated her professional time and talent for a family portrait day for families in Marshall County. Over 30 families were given a free portrait session complete with two 5 x 7's and eight wallets in the pose of their choice just in time for Mother's Day. Angela tells about her experience, "I had fun creating lasting memories for all of the families who participated." Angela also said that she would like to offer this service again. MCNC would like to thank her for finding a way to use her passion to help people. For more details on MCNC's family portrait day, click here >

Volunteer Spotlight: Fred Benner, Marcia Pownall, Elias Baca, Dan Barden

This special crew of volunteers, also known as our "picker uppers" lift our spirit, as well as our load with transportation and ongoing delivery of donated items from local businesses like Little Caesars, Krogers and Martin's. Earlier this summer, Marcia and Elias were spotted at Little Caesars during their weekly pick up of pizzas, read more here >  Thank you for picking up the deliveries and helping us! We appreciate their ongoing pick up efforts. 

Board Member Spotlight: Geoff Payne

Often the necessary work of MCNC's board members goes  unseen. Therefore, we would like to sing a praise about one of our special board members, Geoff Payne. Geoff supports the center not only by offering the typical resources as a member of the board, but Geoff shows sincere care and concern for the center. From stopping in from time to time just to say hello to the staff, he demonstrates support beyond his roles and duties as the treasurer. His friendliness and willingness to help is greatly valued and appreciated. Thanks Geoff!

There are many other donors, volunteers and board members who are dedicated and appreciated. Stay tuned for our fall update when we will showcase more individuals to spotlight. 

If you would like to participate in supporting the Marshall County Neighborhood Center, there are a variety of opportunities, including our upcoming holiday events. For more information on how you can help the Neighborhood Center contact the office at (574) 936-3388. 

We want to thank Heather King from Beacon Credit Union for nominating us for one of the three Marshall County organizations selected in the Project Spotlight program. 

Beacon's Project Spotlight is a new program created to discover and support worthwhile projects in each community that Beacon serves. Over the past several months, Beacon members have nominated worthwhile organizations to support. Three finalists were then chosen to participate in the Project Spotlight voting. Finalists each have the opportunity to receive money from $200 to $1000! 

We need your vote!!! Show your support so the Marshall County Neighborhood Center family can win! 

This past weekend, Maurice's offered their customers a 20% discount off purchases in exchange for food pantry donations during their shopping visit.

The customers provided full bags and boxes of  canned and dry goods. Maurice's store manager, Lindsay Lobenthal, shares her excitement for community service and hopes to host an even larger food drive later this summer. 

We are so grateful for Maurice's generosity and commitment to community! Thank you Lindsay and the generosity of all those who participated with this recent food drive! 

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Where ever you go throughout our community, you will encounter businesses and people who are helping to stack up support for the Neighborhood Center and its ongoing needs. 

Today, Little Caesars donated 47 boxes of pizza. The pizzas are transported back to the food pantry and place in the freezer for clients who have access to the pantry. Little Caesars in one of our community's businesses who provide products to the pantry on an ongoing weekly basis.

Pictured to the left is volunteer Elias Baca who helps with product deliveries for the Neighborhood Center three times a week. He shares, "I have always wanted to help people in the community." He works along side full-time volunteer Marcia Lowball, a retired school teacher who is committed to this service because, "It makes you feel good to help others."

This is just a snap shot of the generous businesses and volunteers who help the Neighborhood Center help our community and we all thank you! More posts will follow on some other super volunteers and local businesses who go above and beyond for the needs of our community!