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FFA and Crothersville High School students busied themselves this week making fruit baskets for shut-ins and elderly in the community. The FFA and Crothersville-Vernon Township Fire Department delivered 150 holiday cheer baskets on Saturday.
Crothersville FFA members and the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department combined efforts on Saturday to deliver 6.27 tons of food to the community’s underprivileged, according to local FFA advisor Linda Maxie.
“We were able to help 96 families with holiday food because of the contributions of local residents, businesses, and industries,” said Maxie.
This is the 24th year the FFA has assisted areas families in need.
In addition to providing some Christmas cheer to families and children who may not have a Merry Christmas, the FFA delivered 150 cheer baskets of fruit to elderly and those who lost a spouse during the year.
The FFA toy & food drive has been going on so long that there is a second generation of volunteers who now are involved in helping local needy families.
“I like to see the family’s reaction when we show up with toys and food,” said FFA president Kaitlyn Hoevener, a senior at Crothersville High School. She got involved with the FFA food drive at a very early age when her volunteer firefighter father, Marty Hoevener, brought her along as a toddler on delivery day.
“I don’t remember the first time I helped with delivering food,” she said, “but I remember the looks on the faces of families when we showed up with food. To see the kids getting excited about getting food for Christmas would bring tears to my eyes.”
Longtime local firefighter Lynn Howard who remembers Kaitlyn being a part of the delivery when she was just a toddler, said, “It’s the young people that keep me coming back to help; both the new crop of FFA members and young people of the families in the community.”