A few weeks go, Team FLY (Faith Lutheran Youth) had the wonderful opportunity of delivering the Toasty Tree donations to a social services agency in Ravenna. The warm clothes collected in early December at Faith were given to The County Clothing Center where shoppers are able to choose from a wide variety of free donations ranging from hats and gloves to shirts, jewelry, and even toys.

  Walking into the well-organized shopping center, one may think that volunteering there is a piece of cake, however, that is not the case at all. Team FLY had the privilege of going "behind the scenes," where we experienced first hand just how complicated it can be to ready these clothes for those in need. Preparing the clothing takes many hours of weighing, sorting, inspecting, and hanging to finally get the items on the racks.

  Six members of Team Fly delivered about a dozen bags filled with new hats, gloves, socks, scarves and coats. Several bags of gently used clothing were also donated by Team FLY and their families. In all, our donations weighed in at 215 pounds!

  A special thanks goes to everyone who donated clothing for the Toasty Tree as well as to Ron and Mary Rivett who gave the artificial Christmas tree to the youth group for this purpose. Your generosity was greatly appreciated not only by Team Fly, but by all the recipients who benefited from this event.