Still making a difference

By KEVIN DYE

Staff Writer

There will be live entertainment, food and plenty of games, raffles and other activities this Saturday in an effort to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate.

Make A Difference Day returns this Satur-day, Oct. 22 and the theme this year is “Oodles of Noodles.”

The event will be held in West Jefferson’s Garrette Park from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The event seeks to collect 500 pounds of pasta noodles, 50 swimming pool noodles and sew door noodles that prevent drafts for local senior citizens.

“We will have live entertainment and Arnett Howard will be playing at noon,” event coordinator Marci Darlington said. “We will also have games, raffles, balloon twisters, costumed characters, animals to pet, and free massages. It will be a fun event and we can all make a difference helping our community.”

The goal of the event is collect 500 pounds of noodles for the Good Samaritan Food Pantry (which can be pastas, cup of noodles, macaroni and cheese or chicken noodle soup), collect 50 foam swimming pool noodles for The Flying Horse Farms Camp (a camp for seriously ill children), monetary donations to help send a Madison County child to The Flying Horse Farms Camp and to make 500 door noodles (a door draft blocker) that will be distributed to local senior citizens to prevent winter drafts.

Make A Difference Day is a national event that was first started by USA Today in 1992 and was designed for people to volunteer for that one day a year to make a difference in the own neighborhoods, towns and cities. It has become the single biggest day of volunteerism in the nation with over 3 million people participating each year. Ohio is one of the top states for participation in the program and this event will be Darlington’s fifth that she has coordinated in the Village of West Jefferson.

Darlington is also seeking volunteers and raffle items and if you can donate time or items you can contact her at www.noodlesnetwork.net or (740) 490-8317.