“All I brought was a few cans of beans.” “I didn’t do much.” These were statements heard over and over again as the stack of food grew at Trinity Oaks last week. But like “stone soup,” the pile grew and grew. The final collection netted 4,200 pounds of dry goods, staples and canned goods for the pantry and tables served by Rowan Helping Ministries.
The Elium family pushed the rest of the teams when they started bringing in catering-sized containers and 100-pound bags of food! Over the three-week period, the family atmosphere at Trinity Oaks helped create the feeling for this event. Residents, families, staff and volunteers are like a family unit. When someone is in need, everyone wants to help. Everyone gives according to what they can do. Many staff even said they could have been a family in need at some point. Some made special trips to the grocery store, others brought what they could spare.
As team totals showed up on the wall with symbols such as snowmen, snowflakes, snowmen with angel wings, the competition between the assigned teams grew. Those images represented the food in amounts from 25 to 500 pounds. By the end of the event, the wall was full of colorful snowflakes attributing the donations to the teams. The two-ton contribution was moved from the Trinity Oaks campus to Rowan Helping Ministries with the use of a John Deere trailer and tractor provided by the Eliums.
A very special thank you to all individuals and families who made this community project such a successful event.
— Brenda Zimmerman
Salisbury

Zimmerman is the life enrichment director at Trinity Oaks Health and Rehab.

The family of Cynthia Myers Hardin, Hannah Michelle Tice and Terri Myers Parlier wishes to thank the following Salisbury area businesses for donations of food and cutlery to the fundraiser held on Jan. 25: Blue Bay Seafood, Checkered Flag Barbecue, Farmhouse Restaurant, Hendrix Barbecue of Spencer, K&W Cafeteria, Marlow’s Barbecue & Seafood, Richard’s Barbecue, Rick’s Barbecue & Grill and Swicegood Paper Corp.
The family wishes to express a cordial thank you for the entertainment donations by Deejay Cherokee, 69z The Rock Band, and Smokey & The Roadhouse Band. Accordingly, the family would like to thank all the many other businesses and individuals for their donations to the benefit.
The family would like to thank all who came and participated during the benefit to support the family!
— Vickie Prince
Salisbury

Prince was coordinator for the benefit.