My neighbors chatted for a while and the gentleman left with one check for a variety of community charities- the library, firefighters, hospice, cancer society, disability services and more.
Now you might be familiar with Township Combined Fund Drives, but I was not. But it warms my heart to seeing neighbors encouraging and enabling neighbors to give back to the community. How it works is that every year someone in the township pulls together the list of about 20 charities and contacts everyone in their township to contribute- in person or by mail. People chose which charities and how much to contribute. Then wrote one check to the Township Combined Fund. The person collecting the funds then sends the various charities the money. And let's the newspaper know how.much their township raised.
And people give - year in and year out. There are less than 100 residents in our 36 square mile township. And it's not just our township that has this practice, it happens in every rural township in our county. Our newspaper then shares the results of each Township Combined Fund.
There are some spirits and traditions that are worth preserving and sharing. I count this neighbor to neighbor encouragement to give one of those cultural practices we should applaud.
Thank you to everyone who labors with the combined funds in our townships.
Have you heard of this before? I'm interested in hearing if Combined Fund Drives happens elsewhere.
