DARKE COUNTY – Through the first four weekends of the Darke County Community Christmas Drive, $20,116.18 has been collected.

While the donations will be of great help in assisting those in need locally, the giving will need to be extremely generous over the last weekend prior to Christmas in order to reach 2017’s grand total of $30,915.73.

The giving helps the work of the local food banks in Castine, Ansonia and Arcanum in addition to the ministries of FISH, the Grace Resurrection Community Center and Community Unity. The work done locally by the Salvation Army is supported by half of the giving at Kroger and Rural King.

One of the organizations assisted is the Ansonia United Methodist Food Pantry. So far in 2018, there have been 896 families served including 34 new families who have received 976 bags of groceries. This ministry also has provided $6,576 in vouchers to those in need.

As well, the Castine Area Food Bank helped provide Thanksgiving dinner food to 99 families having 302 people. The majority of those helped with these groceries also received additional assistance with food throughout 2018.

This kind of assistance is possible in large part due to the help of the Community Christmas Drive.

The Christmas Drive will continue to accept donations on Friday and Saturday. For anyone not able to give at the “bell ringing” locations, donations also can be made through Jan. 5 to the “Darke County Community Christmas Drive” at P.O. Box 412, Greenville, OH 45331 or by dropping off a donation to Community Christmas Drive Treasurer Mike Boyer at the main branch of the Greenville National Bank.

Any questions about the drive can be directed to Co-Chairmen Joseph Soley at 937-547-0533, Mel Musser at 937-626-7100 or Jim Morehouse at 937-547-1557.