Neighbors Helping Neighbors at McIndoe Academy

Details: Created on Thursday, 09 April 2020 20:23; Written by Taylor Girard

BARNET - For the past 4 weeks, every Sunday afternoon, community members of Barnet have been using McIndoe Academy in a unique way; as a Drive Thru Food Drive for people in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

McIndoe Academy will be open for donations this Saturday in observance of Easter Sunday from 2-4pm, but they will be going back to Sunday afternoon donations after Easter. Bins are located outside of the Academy to donate unused, unopened, and non-perishable items.

Two lanes are set up to ensure that when someone is making a donation, another person can wait and there is little contact. Volunteers of the drive will be waving at the windows, and will be keeping within the social distancing protocols during donation drop offs. Jennifer Crown and Claudia Heisholt have been the main people running these drive thru donations.

"Claudia and I are newer members to the Academy Board, and we're trying to add a fresher perspective and make this a community center. There are a lot of people who openly want to give back in the community of Barnet, and there is a lot of enthusiasm to do something," said Jennifer Crown.

"We also have a box located at Barnet's post office if people are unable to go on Sundays, and there is a huge variety from food to diapers, our next step will be distributing it to Barnet residents," said Crown.

"Jennifer and I have had access to this building for a bit, and we thought you know what, we could actually use this space for something good during this time," explained Herisholt.

"People have been extremely generous about donating so far a women last week actually gave money and said do what you can with this." said Heisholt.

Although donations have been good for far, they have mostly been from the older community members and there is a push right now to get the younger generation involved as well.

"We're on Front Porch Forum, Facebook, Meals on Wheels delivery, and in the local school's paper as well. We're trying to to reach out to as many places as we can and spread the word. We've been seeing the same faces so far, it would be nice to see newer faces like people in their 30s-40s as well," said Crown.

Everyone is welcome to drop off donations, and volunteers are waiting and willing to help out. People who want to help can contact Jennifer Crown on Facebook or at 802-748-3032.