A total of 25 non-profit organizations attended the WILO/Clinton County Points of Light Volunteer Fair Tuesday at the 51 West Event Center in downtown Frankfort.
The main emphasis of the Volunteer Fair is to provide an opportunity for many of Clinton County non-profits to gather in one room to network, exchange ideas, interact, collaborate and plan ways to combine ideas and activities.
“I think it’s a great turnout,” said COACH Kids Community Hope Program Manager Kim Stevens. “I love the idea of the Volunteer Fair. I think it’s important to people to realize that there’s a lot of opportunities in our community for people to get and volunteer and make a difference.”
Stevens, who is also the Executive Director of Frankfort Main Street and puts on the Hot Dog Festival in late July, talks about the number of volunteers they used last year.
“I can tell you from the Main Street perspective we used 143 volunteers last year for the Hot Dog Festival and throughout the year,” said Stevens. “It’s really super important. We could not do what we do and neither could COACH Kids without our volunteers.
“We need volunteers for different things,” she continued. “For COACH Kids, we do a lot of community events as well. We are looking for mentors and mentees and we’re looking for both adults and kids to be a part of the program. I think we both kind of need the same thing.”
The Volunteer Fair drew some new non-profits this year, including Combat Cookies from Dayton. Their mission is to boost the morale of our deployed military members by shipping our fresh baked cookies overseas. Do you know someone deployed overseas? Contact them at combatcookies.org and submit their name and address for a free box of cookies.
“I started this in 2017 out of our home,” said Brandi Bass of Combat Cookies. “I’m a veteran myself. I did 20 years in the Air Force and I know what it’s like to be deployed. I just wanted to do something to give back to people. So, that’s why I started it.”
Bass said the business has blossomed.
“We started an actual storefront by the end of 2020,” said Bass. Our house was getting overran with all the ingredients and cooking supplies. So, we decided to go an actual storefront and it’s been going strong ever since.”
You can visit Combat Cookies at 294 Market Street in Dayton from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. You can contact them for next corporate or social event and you can sponsor a box of cookies by donating to our organization and your can send cards to add to the cookie boxes. For more information, you can visit combatcookies [email protected] or call 765-245-1984.
The Points of Light Volunteer Fair was made possible by our Pillar Sponsors Title Sponsors: Center Township of Clinton County and Encompass Credit Union and our Pillar Sponsor: Wilson’s Farm Market.