Goodfellows Hit The Streets In Essex, Friday

Hello time traveller!!
This article is 3085 days old.
The information listed below is likely outdated and has been preserved for archival purposes.

If you’re in the Essex area this Friday or Saturday, make sure you have spare change handy, as the Goodfellows hit the streets.

Firefighters with Essex Fire and Rescue Service, volunteers from the Knights of Columbus, and students from St. Clair College’s Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training program will be stationed at key locations throughout the region handing out newspapers and collecting donations for this year’s charitable campaign.

“The annual Goodfellows newspaper drive is a community-based effort to collect as many individual and corporate donations as possible so that they can be distributed to food banks just in time for their holiday basket campaigns,” says Chairperson Wendy Pulleyblank-Cunningham.

Founded in 2005 under the leadership of the late Bob Pulleyblank, the Essex Region Goodfellows raise and provide funds to local food banks for the sole purpose of providing food to people in need. Since 2005, the organization has conducted 10 annual newspaper campaigns in the lead-up to the holidays and raised over $425,000 for local food banks.

The Town of Essex and its surrounding communities are currently served by four food banks – Essex Area Food Bank, Essex Salvation Army Food Bank, and the St. Vincent de Paul Food Banks in Harrow and McGregor. Working in conjunction with these charitable organizations, the Goodfellows assist in covering the costs of food baskets distributed over the holidays in the Oldcastle, Maidstone, McGregor, Gesto, Harrow, Colchester and Essex areas.

All of the proceeds from the annual newspaper campaign remain in the community.