Greencastle Kiwanis members help out on Fourth of July

While others spent their Fourth of July celebrating the nation's birthday, several members of the Greencastle Kiwanis Club spent the day raising funds for children suffering from various diseases and physical issues at the Riley Childen's Hospital in Indianapolis.

Continuing their commitment to worthwhile charitable service projects, the seven Kiwanians and one Kiwanis widow welcomed the nation's travelers on eastbound Interstate 70, just west of the Plainfield exit from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. as they visited the Plainfield rest stop and had a cup of hot coffee or a cold drink plus a donated donut or a couple of cookies.

Most of the exhausted, road-weary visitors repaid the Hoosier hospitality they experienced with a contribution to the tip jar by tossing in twenties, tens and fives but a preponderance of multiple dollar bills and change that added up to more than $250 on the Kiwanis Club's continuing efforts on Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day to raise over $1,200.

Volunteers recruited by project leader Carl Singer to staff the roadside charity project included the two-member teams of Rev. and Mrs. Paul Champion, Joanne Haymaker and Grace Ford, Charles Miles and Ann Newton, plus Tim Bookwalter and Patrick Aikman.

The largest group of the day was a cheerful, well-behaved group of Boy Scouts and their leader Scoutmaster Jim Ramey and United Methodist troop founder Carol Beany from Commercial Point, Ohio. They were enroute home after two days on the road traveling from the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, where they had just completed an 11-day scouting trip, hiking in the Sangre de Christo Mountains.