Kennedy’s Fresh Foods, one of the all-time huge community supporters and loyal West River Health Services Foundation donor, has paid it forward once again! On February 7th, the day before Giving Hearts Day, Kyle Kennedy brought in a Truckload of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for our community. If you filled the brown bag to the top, it set you back $20. But Kennedy’s paid forward $5 for every bag to our WRHS Foundation – and 160 bags were sold in one day! So Kennedy’s forwarded $800 to the WRHS Foundation, right? Wrong! They gave me $1,500! To help us move the needle and improve our top-quality healthcare “close to home.” They’re amazing!

Kennedy gets it. We all need each other. We need food. We need a place to go for healthcare. And we need it, when we need it! And close to home, darn it.

So the bags of fruits and veggies started rolling out the door at 10 am sharp. Our WRHS Foundation was on hand at Kennedy’s from 3 - 7 pm on February 7th, ready with a table just south of the checkout counters. Guess we should have been at Kennedy’s at 10 am, as there was a mad rush of locals wanting fresh produce something fierce. By noon, a hundred bags had already been filled! I guess with summertime weather, people want summertime fresh fruits and veggies! No matter, we had a terrific four hours, as we collected 48 gifts ranging from $2 to $250 – for a total of $1,350! Wow! Of course, for every ten dollars you gave, your name went into a drawing for the following five prizes – 1) A dozen fresh steaks from a loin of beef via Kennedy’s; 2) Dinner for Four at Hettinger Country Club’s Seafood Fundraiser March 22nd via Kennedy’s; 3) Six-piece Grill Supply Kit via WRHS Foundation; 4) Giving Hearts Poodle; and 5) Giving Hearts Goblet with $20 Peacock Gift Card. The winners were drawn at 7 pm as follows: Ron & Brooke Kessel, Dalton & Hailey Mellmer, Paul & Molly Wolf, Jeri Dunn and Kloe Acton. In that same order for each gift. They’ve all been contacted and look forward to their gifts.

Thank you to everyone who purchased a bag or two of fresh produce and gave it indirectly. And thanks to those who gave directly to our WRHS Foundation after checking out. And thank you Kennedy’s Fresh Foods. We are so grateful. By the end of the next day, Giving Hearts Day, after numerous gifts throughout the year, and after two “Giving Hearts Nights” in Scranton and New England, and a Kennedy’s Truckload Fresh Produce Sale, we had raised $328,975 for our healthcare system for Giving Hearts Day. Onward! Ted Uecker, FDO