The Barton County Young Professionals group recently partnered with the Great Bend Rotary Club to host their 4th Annual Charity Supply Drive on Saturday, March 5th.
“Our volunteers worked at both Dillon’s stores from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. collecting donations of non-perishable food and household supplies for the Barton County Food Bank,” said Traci Burns, volunteer leader for the BCYP group’s Community Impact team. “We filled two passenger vans provided by Barton Community College, and collected an additional $637 in donations of cash and gift cards.”
Thanks to a sponsorship from the Great Bend Rotary Club, the Young Professionals volunteers were able to purchase a live remote radio broadcast with Eagle Radio and donate an additional lump sum, bringing the total raised to $1,000. “I am just so overwhelmed. We feel so blessed,” said Evelyn Essmiller, volunteer for the Barton County Food Bank, where the pantry was so full that food lined the hallways for several days after the supply drive.
“Our group has been putting a much greater emphasis on volunteering and leadership development the last two years,” says Regan Reif, 2016 Chairperson for the BCYP Steering Committee. “In December, we made gift bags for kids in foster care through CASA, in January we assembled over 400 literacy kits for preschool students in cooperation with United Way of Central Kansas, and we’ll continue our efforts by working to refresh the Born Learning Trail at the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo in mid to late April.”
The Barton County Young Professionals group has three main goals: Lead. Network. Volunteer. The group is free to join, and is open to anyone between the ages of 21 and 40 that lives or works in the Barton County area. For more information, visit www.b