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The 5th annual Fill the food drive held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was another successful year for food collection in Boundary County according to Pam Moe.
This was a Lewis-Clark Service Corps' service project organized by Mrs. Moe, a former AmeriCorps member and Megan Brown, the current AmeriCorps member both from Valley View Elementary.
“It is amazing what a small town can do in just a few short hours,” Brown said.
On Monday, 95 student and teacher volunteers from Boundary County School District, students from Echo Springs, retired teachers, forest service employees, and many more showed up to help load 2,880 pounds of food into two school district buses.
Ronnie and Mike Howe volunteered their time for seven hours at Akins Harvest Foods ... and they've done it for the past four years.
The buses were weighed at General Feed and Grain after they were loaded with all of the food and household items donated.
The buses took the food to the Community Action Partnership food bank in Bonners Ferry, and volunteers formed an old-time fire brigade line and moved all donations from the buses to the back of the food bank in about 15 minutes.
$866.92 was collected in cash donations, which went directly to Community Action Partnership.
“We are grateful to Boundary County School District, all the volunteers, Safeway, and Akins Harvest Foods and, of course, all the donors for their generous contributions!” said Moe.
The people who will benefit, while they might never know from where the largesse came, might never get the chance to thank their benefactors ... but here's an unofficial prediction ... many of them, once they get through the situation they're now in during which help is needed, are going to be able to grow stronger, pick themselves up and find better days ahead.
When they do, they're going to become part of the next generation of benefactors, giving in every way they can.
This place is rare in its ability to bring out the best in people.
Perhaps that's why Bonners Ferry is considered the "Friendliest Town in Idaho."
Give help when needed, appreciate and embrace the many and varied talents of the people who come here, and they come to ask how they can give back.
As the most remote part of the friendliest state in these United States, that's a legacy to take pride in.
It's a legacy that will forever build upon itself, and it may well last forever. We adults might not always get along, but we are truly blest. When adults forget, our children seem to always remember.