Last Saturday (9/10) the Red Cross held a blood drive outside Lansing United Methodist Church at 32 Brickyard Road.  Several Red Cross vans and a truck were sent from Binghamton to collect blood.  Donations are lower during the summer because the Red Cross can't go to to the high schools and people are on vacations.  That makes drives like this one all the more important, especially with the extra need from Hurricane Katrina victims.

"We're seing a higher response because of Katrina, but we're also on appeal because we have a blood shortage," Rebecca Barrous, one of the Red Cross representatives, told us."We've had more blood drives and a higher response because of Katrina."

Whenever there is an opportunity to raise funds for the community the Lansing Lions are there.  Members of the philanthropic club were on the town Highway Department grounds at the crack of dawn, setting up their tent to sell food and drinks to people attending the municipal auction last Saturday (9/10).

 

JuneIt isn’t what you might think. Every Tuesday a group of women meet at the Lansing Library and prepare books for shelving. All items on the library shelves are the result of a purchase or donation. Holly selects the books we are going to buy. She also goes through all the donations deciding which ones have potential for our shelves and the rest are boxed and held for our once a year book sale.

June and Nancy complete the first step in the processing of books for our shelves. June is seen here getting ready to fill out a form for the new Janet Evanovich book. Nancy was helping at the Friends book sale on this day. They fill out forms for each book recording author, title, publisher, cost, book type, etc.

The School Board meeting at Lansing Elementary School's cafeteria had a more than usual turnout last Monday (09/12) as students sought to fulfill a government assignment by attending a public meeting.  Students got to participate in government as well as observe it.  During the public comments part of the meeting Sharia Osborne expressed concern that lunch prices have risen, while choices have been reduced.

Board President Bonita Lindberg explained the economics of the price rises.  Lansing has not been able to cover the cost of the food and expenses such as salaries, so has raised prices to cover these expenses. 

Dear IMO,

I would like to make a sizeable donation for the relief efforts involved with Hurricane Katrina. After watching hours of TV and reading numerous articles in magazines, newspapers, and on the net, I’m concerned about how the money will be spent. I hear that New Orleans is “corrupt”, and I’m disappointed in the response of local, state and the federal governments. The Red Cross is an option, but I just heard that they have collected quite a sum already and have my doubts about the amount of my donation that will actually help those in need. It may sound petty, but I’m not sure that I trust many of these organizations. Do you know of any other charities or non-for-profits that might benefit from my gift?

Hopefully optimistic,

Greg

And that is exactly what Margaret "Peg" MacKenzie, Church World Service (CWS) contact on the Outreach Committee of the Lansing United Methodist Church (LUMC), is counting on as she coordinates the assembly of various kits for the smallest victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The raffle quilt is an original design by Elsie Dentes, made by guild members and machine-quilted by Lori Benjamin.

Ithaca…   The Board of Trustees, staff, volunteers, and of course, animals of the Tompkins County SPCA are proud to introduce our new Executive Director, Jeff Lydon. He offers a broad range of experience in non-profit management and animal advocacy, as well as a compelling vision for our future.
           
While completing his master’s degree in teaching at Smith College where he focused his studies on humane education, Jeff served as the fund raising coordinator at New England Animal Action in Massachusetts.  Upon returning to the Finger Lakes, he worked as the Education Coordinator at Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal advocacy organization.  With an outstanding track record in grant writing, Jeff acquired tens of thousands of dollars for humane educators in upstate New York.  He also wrote companion materials for the award winning Animal People documentaries produced by the Ithaca based film makers Tribe of Heart.