St. Mary's Students Continue Lenten Drive

With a week left to go and "a ton" of items already donated, St. Mary's students continue their Lenten "Needs" drive for the Siena Francis House in Omaha, a Catholic Charity that services the homeless and less fortunate of Omaha and surrounding area.

Donation boxes are located at Alco, Torpin's Rodeo Market, Sack 'N' Save and the back of St: Patrick's Catholic Church, now through April 12.

Grades 7-12 are holding a contest to see who can get the most items collected over the two week period. At the end of the drive each class's donations will be weighed to see who got the most donations per pound since such a wide variety of things are needed. Prizes will be awarded to the top two classes.

In 2005 the Siena Francis House served 285,424 meals and had 91,723 nights of shelter. In an average month they use 105 - 3 pound cans of coffee; 25 gallons of disinfectant cleaner; 250 pounds of clothes soap; 20 cases

(96 rolls) of toilet paper; 750-45 and 55 gallon trash liners; 65 pounds of sugar; 180 pounds of butter and margarine; 10 gallons of mayonnaise; 18 gallons of ketchup and 25 gallons of cooking oil.

Other items that are of great need are clothing and blankets for men, women, children and infants, nonperishable food items, baby formula, baby food, men's, women's and children's undergarments, laundry detergent, soap, makeup, perfume, combs and brushes. Monetary donations are also being collected and the students will use the money to buy things that they did not receive. Items will be purchased in O'Neill in order to keep the money local.

For more information or to schedule a pick-up of a donation contact Jennifer Koehlmoos at 3403111, Tim Shoemaker at 336-2177 or Katie Fletcher at 340-5184. For more information or items to donate visit http:/1www.sienafrancis.org/ daily-needs-list.htm.