ELIZABETHTOWN — Five collection sites are available this month for Roger’s Wish, the community project headquartered by the Bladen Journal helping the homeless in memory of Roger Grunder.
• Bladen Journal, 207-A E. Broad St., Elizabethtown.
• Bladen County Public Library, 111 N. Cypress St., Elizabethtown.
• Lacy West-Thomas Insurance, 700 W. Broad St., Elizabethtown.
• Elizabethtown ABC, 2817 W. Broad St., Elizabethtown.
• Kessel Run Comics, 124 W. Broad St., Elizabethtown.
Hours vary at each location. But anytime each is open, donations are accepted.
Collections of gently used blankets and sleeping bags will be accepted through the month of October. On Nov. 5, distribution takes place starting at 8:30 a.m. and going until 6 p.m. or until the donations run out. Distribution will be in the parking lot area between the library and the building that houses the newspaper and chamber — at the corner of Cypress and Broad streets.
Grunder was a fixture in Elizabethtown, a homeless man by choice for the final 19 years of his life. It was in the summer of 2013 that he talked of a blanket and sleeping bag drive to benefit the area homeless and needy.
He died in a car crash just as the Bladen Journal partnered with him the first year.
The newspaper, with assistance from his sister Maria, keeps his dream alive each fall by helping the less fortunate just before the season’s first frost.
In past years, this has been an opportunity for church groups, youth groups, school groups, company groups, etc., to participate in a month-long challenge to collect blankets and sleeping bags.
More information is available by calling the newspaper at 910-862-4163 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays.