Moose Lodge challenges others to help local children
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LAFFERTY -- Lafferty Moose Lodge recently gave Heart of Belmont County its biggest donation yet.
The lodge donated $3,500 to the organization following its annual summer lodge picnic.
Lodge Administrator Marsha Butler said the donations were raised by the lodge having a dunk tank where attendees could pay for a chance to dunk Butler as well as other lodge members. Following the picnic, the lodge matched the $1,750 that was raised from the picnic to total $3,500.
Heart of Belmont County is an organization started by Belmont County resident Amanda Lancione in July. The organization was created when Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services announced it would not be offering its annual School Clothes for Kids Program. Since July, DJFS did announce that it would be doing a scaled-back version of the program this year.
The program will operate on a smaller scale but was made possible through a partnership with the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley.
The program is being funded with $100,000 through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program and $50,000 from the Belmont County Community Action Commission.
Originally started as a GoFundMe, Heart of Belmont County soon became an initiative where parents messaged Lancione their Amazon wish list links, which she then posted to the page.
The donation from the lodge has led Butler to issue a challenge to Belmont County businesses and organizations to try and beat their donation.
"We’re challenging other businesses to come forward and make donations to help out with these kids," Butler said. "She's still trying to take care of all of them as much as she can, but there’s just not a lot of funds."
She added that the challenge is just friendly competition and it does not matter if a donation isn't as large, but any amount would help Lancione greatly.
Butler said that she saw Lancione's posts on social media and the lodge eagerly reached out to help.
"We wanted to do something to be able to help our community. So we thought that this would be a great way to be able to help multiple kids in the community," Butler said. "We have a wonderful membership here. They’re always willing to chip in and help when it comes to taking care of the community."
She added that the lodge is always ready and willing to help the community.
Lancione said that she was overjoyed when Butler contacted her about the lodge's donation.
"She is fantastic. I don’t think that I have ever met a person with a bigger heart, she deserves the recognition. She is absolutely an angel," Lancione said. "They’re a wonderful organization. I know they have a really good reputation for stepping up to help the community, and they’re continuing to do that now by helping."
Lancione added that since July, the organization has raised over $11,000 to go toward the students’ back-to-school needs, but there are still over 100 children's lists that are still on the Amazon wishlist.
In order to try and serve all of the children, Lancione has been using the donations from businesses to purchase items that couldn’t be got at clothing drives.
"I did a lot of shoes, socks and underwear. If they didn’t have those things on their list, I was buying a couple outfits," Lancione said. "A lot of the lists have had things purchased off of them but still have items remaining."
She added that she didn't want to use all of the donations on a dozen or so students’ complete lists and then some students didn't receive anything.
"I'm trying to be as fair as possible," Lancione said. "I just appreciate everything that everybody has continued to do for the kids. And all of this is for the kids, every bit of it."
She added that if anybody still wants to donate, the organization has an account with WesBanco Bank where anyone interested in donating can visit any WesBanco location and contribute.
Lancione said that if any business or organization is wanting to donate or sponsor a student, she will still be shouting out the sponsors on the Heart of Belmont County's Facebook page.