Close to $60,000 raised for flood victims through recent fundraisers
WEST LAFAYETTE – A spaghetti dinner held at Living Faith Church of the Nazarene in West Lafayette raised more than $17,000 for flood victims. The dinner, held Saturday, July 20, was the collaboration of church members and businesses throughout the community.
“We had a lot of businesses who donated items for our auction,” said Becky Cottrell, who initiated the idea for the benefit dinner. “We were originally going to have a silent auction, but because so many items were donated, we decided to have a live auction.”
The dinner also featured a bake sale and homemade ice cream was served. Weaver Furniture in Sugarcreek donated the food for the benefit.
“They really wanted to help us so that every penny could be donated to the flood victims,” said Cottrell.
The money that was raised will be donated directly to people in the community who have reached out to the church for financial help.
“It started out as just a small idea,” said Cottrell about the dinner. “I didn’t know how to make it grow, so I prayed over it and I took it to the pastor and to the women and Bible study group. We all communicated, and everything came together.”
Monetary donations were provided by The Jones Zylon Company, Jones Metal Products, Wiley’s Finest, B-Dry System, Calvary United Methodist Church in Newcomerstown, Pearl Valley Cheese, and Marion Jones Mulligan.
Community members also donated food supplies, baked goods, auction items, and other items needed for the benefit.
Home Loan Savings Bank and the West Lafayette United Methodist Church also had a Day of Caring on Friday, July 12.
“We’re the community bank,” said Kaycee Newell, branch manager at Home Loan. “We’re the local bank, the only bank in West Lafayette. These are our customers, and they have become more than just customers. They’re our friends and we see them every day and hear their stories.”
Although the Day of Caring is over, Home Loan Savings Bank and the West Lafayette United Methodist Church is still collecting money for flood victims.
“The need is still there,” said Newell. “It’s not going to go away overnight.”
Rev. Matt Anderson of the West Lafayette United Methodist Church said that they established the relief fund with the Home Loan Savings Bank the week after the flood.
“We raised $40,000 on the Day of Caring alone,” said Anderson. “The first $20,000 was matched by the Coshocton Foundation’s Johnson Fund.”
To help distribute this money to the people who need it most in an efficient way, the church has established a board of seven community leaders to make decisions on how those funds are distributed.
“We’ve established this fund and we have received a significant amount of money given in a short amount of time,” said Anderson. “We are a church and we want to make sure we do that [distribute the funds] justly and fairly.”
Applications to receive funding can be obtained at the church office, 120 West Union Ave., West Lafayette, or at the village administration office, 113 East Railroad St., West Lafayette.
People can still donate to the fund by sending a check to the church. Please make the check out to the West Lafayette United Methodist Church and put Flood Fund in the memo line.
“All of the money is going right back to the victims of the flood,” said Anderson. “The majority of these folks didn’t have insurance and a lot of those folks are still not back in the homes, especially those at The Mills Apartments. We established this fund because no one else was doing it at first and it quickly became people coming up to us asking us if they could donate money.”
The community is appreciative of every dollar that is coming in to help the flood victims.
“I don’t know how to say thank you enough,” said Newell. “Every dollar helps and I’m sure those people it’s going to go toward will be thankful for it. I’m thankful to see the community come together to help these people. It’s something you don’t see in other communities.”
Category: People & Places
