From Page 1

around 200 bags of food per week to kids that need it during the school year with the hopes of returning to yearlong assistance as soon as it is feasible.. Each bag costs around three dollars to assemble, so the program easily goes through $600 a week just in supplies.

After meeting Amy, I decided this was a cause I could stand behind. It’s simple, kids need food to not only survive, but thrive. Kids need to come to school fueled and ready to learn, not worrying about lunch because they have not eaten in 48 hours. As the President of the Hastings Hawks, I presented the idea of turning our 2018 Rivertown Days game against the Prescott Pirates, the River Rumble, into a fundraiser for the Food4Kids program. We figured we would give it a go and see what would happen. If we raised $90, we would feed, 30 kids. Our goal was $500 because we started working on it two weeks before the game. We knew we could hit a homerun with this.

The day came and we had tremendous support from not only the business community with gift card donations, and the community with their purchases and donations, but we had a monstrous effort from both Corborn’s of Hastings and Ptacek’s IGA in Prescott. Both stores donated 50 bags worth of food to each team, plus cash from the sales of similar bags in the stores. In all, we raised $1500 for Food4Kids in 2018.

The drive was so successful, we planned on doing it yearly. In 2019, there were scheduling issues and the game was cancelled, which brings us to 2020 and the terrible year that was. Baseball was so limited; we couldn’t risk having the game. 2021 had enough uncertainty and changes until March, we didn’t get the rumble scheduled… again… That is where Nick Tuckner and the Minnesota Mammoths 35+ team comes in. They needed a place to play a key game for their season and Nick wanted his guys to play on his hometown field at Vets. It happened to be the Friday night of Rivertown Days. The Hawks had a make-up game scheduled for Saturday, so Nick and I decided to see if we could turn the weekend into a fundraiser for a Hastings charity. We decided Food4Kids would be perfect, but again, we came to this conclusion last minute. In fact, so last minute, it was decided on Wednesday the week of the games.

Thanks to Green Mill, Perkins, Dairy Queen, Nick Tuckner, the Hastings Hawks, and some gift cards to Spiral Brewery and Las Margaritas that I had, we were able to raise $300 for Food4Kids all in about four days’ time.

Schafer came to the final Hawks home game of the season on Wednesday night to be presented the check. It wasn’t the $1500 raised in 2018, and it was ‘only’ $300, but that is where doing small things in a great way is so important. The money raised will feed about 100 kids. That is 100 kids that won’t go hungry because we made a small effort to help feed them.

Can you imagine what would happen if all 2800 of our readers were to do a small thing in a great way? If all 2800+ donated $1 to the Food4kids program, that would feed over 900 kids. Bump that to a $5 donation per reader and we are feeding over 4,600 kids.

I am already proud to be part of an organization like the Hastings Hawks for the last 10 years, and reflecting on my rookie year with the Journal, I can say I am proud of the small things our paper does in a great way. The owner, John McLoone, is stepping up to the plate for another give back to Hastings.

Starting now, until Wednesday, August 11th, we need your help. We are going to donate the money from new subscriptions to the United Way of Hastings’ Food4Kids program. Tell your friends to subscribe by Friday, August 13th, one year for $30 or two for $50, and that money will go to feed kids in Hastings. If you want to simply donate to Food4Kids, we can be the messenger for you. Write your check to Food4Kids, mail it to us and we will deliver your check with ours.

If you wish to donate directly to the Food4Kids program, visit www.unitedwayofhastings. org to learn about opportunities to donate. Another great way to help out the program is the Stuff the Bus campaign. This years Stuff the Bus will happen from August 23-30 and you can donate online at www.givemn.org/story/Stb2021 or they will be collecting Food 4 Kids items at Coborn’s, Cub, Spiral Natural Foods, and Walmart.

The gauntlet has been dropped! Do you accept the challenge? Tell your friends to subscribe, toss $5 or more to the United Way of Hastings, or Stuff the Bus! Every little bit helps.