BY MATT ERICKSON

MERICKSON@THEWORLDCO.INFO

For one winter while she was growingup in Leavenworth, Sharon Tuttle’s fam-ily had no income while her father recov-ered from open-heart surgery.

Only because of the kindness of otherswas her family able to continue eatingwhile her father couldn’t work. So, youcould say collecting goods to stock foodpantries is a cause close to her heart.

“If it wasn’t for a cou-ple of the local charitiesin Leavenworth, wewould have had a lot oftrouble,” Tuttle said.

Tuttle, an escrow clos-er for Kansas SecuredTitle in Tonganoxie, isone of 16 students in the2011-12 Southern Leav-enworth County Lead-ership Developmentclass helping to organizea food drive during themonth of February. Thedrive — which is alsocollecting sundry itemssuch as paper towels,shampoo and shavingcream in addition tononperishable food items — will benefitfood pantries serving Tonganoxie, Base-hor, Leavenworth and Lansing.

The leadership class’s collections inTonganoxie will go to the Good Shep-herd Thrift Shop’s food pantry, anddonations in Basehor will go to the Base-hor-Linwood Assistance Servicespantry at Basehor United MethodistChurch.

Goods collected in Leavenworthand Lansing will go to LeavenwothAssistance Center and Catholic Chari-ties in Leavenworth.

Brad Eccles, assistant director of theTonganoxie Recreation Commissionand another student in the 21st annu-al edition of the leadership class, saidthe class members decided this time ofyear would be ripe for a food and goodsdrive, as giving to charitable organiza-tions can hit a lull after the holiday

season ends.“After the first of the

year, the giving dropsoff, so we’re trying torefill those places,”Eccles said.

Though class mem-bers have set out col-lection boxes at anumber of placesaround the county,they’ve also tried to bemore creative in theirmission, Eccles said.For instance, he haschallenged fifth- andsixth-graders on 12Tonganoxie recre-ational basketball

teams to compete to collect the mostgoods for the drive. The winning teamwill get a pizza party.

Eccles said he hoped the contestwould encourage the children to thinkabout the purpose of the drive.

“As long as the kids kind of thinkabout, ‘Hey, there are kids out therewho don’t have anything,’” Ecclessaid.

In Basehor, class members will col-

lect goods at Basehor-Linwood HighSchool on Friday as the basketballteams take on Bonner Springs. JenniferBizzell, a Basehor resident taking partin the class, said they hadn’t pickedthe rivalry matchup on accident.

“We knew we were going to havehigh attendance,” Bizzell said.

In Leavenworth and Lansing, whereTuttle is helping to lead the effort, classmembers are collecting goods in per-son at Dillons in Lansing and Wal-Mart in Leavenworth.

Tuttle asked for county residents toconsider that a host of things — the lossof a job, sickness or other hardships —

can leave families in need, and manyfamilies in the county do need help. It’ssomething she knows from experience.

“It’s special for me,” Tuttle said.The leadership class was established as

a joint venture between the Tonganoxieand Basehor chambers of commerce.

Students meet monthly from Septem-ber to May, usually in Basehor and hearfrom guest speakers on various topics,such as education and local government.Students also tour the LeavenworthCounty Courthouse and Justice Center,the statehouse in Topeka and theLawrence Journal-World.

FEBRUARY 23, 2012 COMMUNITY | 9

Leadership class collecting goods for needy

BASEHOR DROP-OFFLOCATIONS

Residents can donate atBasehor Community Library,First State Bank and Trust,Community National Bank,Dollar General, Sarah'sStudio of Dance and KansasSecured Title. Class mem-bers will also collect dona-tions Friday at the Basehor-Linwood High School homebasketball games againstBonner Springs.

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