Community pulls together in support of Goodfellows

by Angie Asam, Staff Writer

With the economy in Michigan and the entire country down, the community of Onaway pulled together to help a great number of families and children this holiday season through the Goodfellows’ program.

The Goodfellows’ program has been in existence since 1975 and seems to just grow. Through a stocking tree at Tom?s Family Market the community and the group helped make sure that 280 children from Tower, Onaway and Millersburg had a gift to open this Christmas.

More than 100 food boxes were given to needy families and each box included a $20 food certificate for the family to buy meat to have for a holiday meal.

Last Thursday more than 50 people gathered at St. Paul Hall to help pack up the boxes. ?We had a wonderful turnout to help this year and we

also had 40 people there on Saturday helping move the boxes out of the building,? said organizer Terry Materna.

Many churches, school and other community groups came together to help the Goodfellows and the canned food drives done by the school and other groups were a great help to the program. ?Donations were great this year, we had many donations from many various groups,? said Materna.

?Everything was done in a positive way and everything ended with a positive note this year,? said Materna. Materna is helped by members of the J.D. Tucker Pistol Club and Marie Stalker in organizing the event.

With a struggling economy affecting nearly every family, the community surrounding Onaway really came together to help those less fortunate, exactly what the holidays are all about.