Making a difference…

What IS Make a Difference Day? Make A Difference Day is the most encompassing national day of helping others -- a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors. Everyone can participate. Created by USA WEEKEND Magazine, Make A Difference Day is an annual event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October. You pick your own project. In Chester County, we’ve been providing food and toiletry items for citizens in need for 13 years! We start in August each year, soliciting donations. By September, we’re starting to shop for more items using donated funds, we’re picking up donations, sorting and counting daily – over and over and over!

Then in October, the project kicks into high gear. We determine the delivery routes, dates, and times, coordinate all volunteer help, pick up snacks for the volunteers, shop and pick up more donations, and sort and count to make sure we have enough of everything! The week leading up to October 24 is crazy – we have folks working at Love Presbyterian Church every day. They are bagging the items, delivering the items, visiting the clients, making phone calls - sometimes all at once! On the actual Make a Difference Day, we gather to celebrate, to present our last bag, and to give bulk items to the children’s home. And catch our breath!

Frances Stephenson brought the Make a Difference Day project to our attention 13 years ago. She continues to work with it in spite of battling cancer.

You guessed it - collecting items for Make a Difference Day is a annual competition between Clemson and Gamecock fans at Chester Park School of the Arts! (Clemson won!)

The Academy of Teaching and Learning kicked off the project with the first donations in September – canned goods and Kleenex!

Lewisville Middle School Student Council – what a great group of future leaders! They collected items for the project, then took a half day and packed 450 bags!

Student Council boys got a work out lifting boxes of jars and canned goods!

Packing 450 bags is real work. This Student Council member figured out how to make produc- tion by packing 4 bags at once!

Pick up a bag, put in one of every item, place the bag in the delivery area, pick up a bag, do it all again!

Everyone helps – from students to senior citizens to 4-H leaders - here, this group is preparing containers of condiments to be dropped into the bags.

Our future is definitely in good hands with students like these!

Go, Go Girl Scouts! The Gethsemane Girl Scouts came out in mass this year to help. They bagged items, placed bags in order for the deliveries, and colored notes to go in each bag.

Students in the Health Science Class at Chester County Career Center gave 3 half days to the project to help sort, pack, and deliver bags. That was in addition to collecting items for the bags!

A bonus for the Health Science class was the delivery of bags to the Adult Day Center. They were able to visit with clients and staff and discussed possible student internships

Chester City Police Department works with many folks in need in town. Here they are shown picking up items to go to the elderly and others that welcome a helping hand.

Arla (above) and Jim Carter (right) are a powerhouse husband and wife team who donate goods and give many hours to MADD each year. Thankfully, there are several hundred more volunteers just like them!

Who Made a Difference Chester County 4-H Horse Club Sara Lee Bread This and That FCL Club JAG Class, Chester High Jeannie McCowan Peggy and Thomas Baker Purity Presbyterian Church Vinc Foundation Bargain City Bargain Max Grocery Safari Pilot Club Great Falls Tigers 4-H Club Great Falls Presbyterian Church Nation Ford Ag. Science Classes Simpson Family Steele Family Bassett Family Love Presbyterian Church Lewisville Middle School Edgemoor FCL Club Senior Companions Academy of Teaching and Learning Chester Park School of the Arts Chester Park School of Inquiry Health Science Class, Chester Co. Career Ctr. Gethsemane Girl Scouts Arla and Jim Carter Union ARP Church Mildred Kilpatrick Grace Love Lewisville FCL Club Linda Herron Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Frances Robinson Our best estimate is a total of close to 1000 people helping with this project!

Recipients Senior Services Clients York County Council on Aging Clients Children’s Attention Home Senior Companions Chester Adult Day Center Clients United Hospice Hospice Care of SC Purity Presbyterian Church Community Food Bank The Turning Point Community Food Bank Chester City Police Department’s Folks in Need Folks We Met that are in Need What Was Given 550 paper grocery bags, filled with an average of 15 items – food and toiletry items – that equals 8250 items! At least 200 items given to the Children’s Attention Home, an emergency shelter and home for children – food items, toys, and toiletries.