Wisconsin—The Rhinelander Seventh-day Adventist Church members and students from the Rhinelander Elementary School went can collecting again this year. This is the 13th year that I have been involved, and I know it has been a yearly initiative well before I became involved. Church members collect every year in October.

The children in the school, along with a few faithful adults, go door to door in the community asking for non-perishable food donations. If the people are not home or are not prepared, we leave a bag with them or on their front door with a note on it indicating when we will come back to collect the bag. They just leave the bag on their front porch where we can see it from the road. If we see a bag, we stop and pick it up; if not, we keep going. We don't want to pressure anyone, but we do want to give those a chance who want to help. It is a good feeling to be able to help others. We never know when we may need help, too.

The items we collect, along with fresh produce and all the trimmings for a Thanksgiving dinner, are included in baskets made for those less fortunate in the community. Social Services provides a list of names, and they send out letters to the people telling them they have a basket of food waiting for them at the church on a certain day. We sort the donated food items into boxes according to the number of members in each family, add the fresh food items (bread, rolls, margarine, eggs, turkey, carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, pies, etc.), and then distribute the boxes a couple of days before Thanksgiving. We make 15–24 baskets each Thanksgiving. This year we made 18 baskets.

We are very blessed to have Trigs Foods in our community. They have helped us every year, and we are so grateful. Trigs Foods donates the food collection bags we use, and they help us with the food we buy. Rhinelander is growing, but the small-town feeling is still here—in the people kind enough to share, and with the grocery store doing what they can to help the people here.

The kids from the school saw what compassion is all about, and they gave of themselves to help, even in freezing, rainy weather. Brandon Blotnicki, one of the students, says he feels blessed just being able to help. He thinks it is a good feeling he wants to have more often. Charlotte Kohley, their teacher, allows students to go out collecting two to three days during the week, then she lets them help sort the food items, pack the boxes, and carry them out to the peoples' cars. She calls this community service and thinks kids will learn as much from this as their regular school work.

Donna Peters, Rhinelander Church correspondent