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Children’s Home Society kicks off fundraiser

PARKERSBURG – The Children’s Home Society kicked off its annual Mothers Day fundraising drive with the help of area convenience and grocery stores.

An event was held Tuesday at Foodland in the Gihon Shopping Center in south Parkersburg. Representatives of the society, the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association, Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell and Vienna Mayor Randy Rapp gathered to pass out treats and information on the Children’s Home Society and its various programs.

The campaign, which is being conducted in conjunction with the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association, will feature pink paper flowers that can be purchased for $1 at local Par Mar, GoMart, MiniGiants, One Stop convenience stores and Foodland grocery stores. The flowers with the names of loved ones will then be put up for display.

The fund-raising drive began Monday and will run through Mother’s Day, May 12.

Jim Oppe, owner of several local Foodland locations and chairman of O.M.E.G.A., said this is the third year the organization has teamed up with the Children’s Home Society to raise money. Last year the group raised more than $6,000 locally and about $91,000 for the Children’s Home Society statewide.

“We’re hoping to at least top that this year,” Oppe said. “We’d like to get a six-digit figure.”

Carna Metheney-White, a child and family service supervisor with the Children’s Home Society, said those funds are used to supplement grant funding for the organization’s 13 program areas, such as emergency child shelters, foster care, adoption, mentoring, early intervention and numerous other family support programs.

“Parkersburg is our largest service area,” she said. “A lot of our programs are grant-funded. The more money we receive through this, it helps us to continue these programs. The dollars donated locally stay local.”

The Children’s Home Society of West Virginia assisted nearly 13,000 West Virginia children in 2012. There are approximately 4,000 West Virginia children in some type of out-of-home care today due to crisis in the family. In addition, there are 1,200 children in need of adoption.

For additional information, go to www.childhswv.org.

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