Jeffrey Bryan from Wilmington wrote on 11/08/2019 at 12:16 pm:
Today is the distribution day for the 6th Annual Roger`s Wish Project at the Bladen County Library on South Cypress Street in Elizabethtown.
Roger`s Wish is named after it`s founder,Roger Theodore Grunder, who lost his life in a car accident on August 30, 2013. Roger had just began collecting blankets for the drive about 3 weeks before losing his life. Roger lived as a homeless person on and off for the last 19 years of his life.He was well known around Elizabethtown for his thoughtfulness toward others and for his sense of humor,as well. Roger was often seen at the Bladen Crisis Thrift Shop where he worked as a volunteer. He also frequented the Bladen Journal office and the library where he loved visiting with friends.
Roger`s Wish was garnered with a second place award for best community project by a newspaper in a statewide competition back in 2014. Roger was memorialized earlier in the same year in the library gardens with a plaque and a rosemary plant by Rhea Hebert and this author. During 2015 the project received news coverage from both WWAY and WECT television stations out of Wilmington.
Roger`s Wish collected and distributed nearly 1,000 blankets and sleeping bags during it`s first 5 years.Some of the donations came from as far away as Florida and New York and New Jersey.
My sincere gratitude goes out to everyone who donated items this year to help the needy of the area to help stay warm. May God bless all of you.
Related article:
https://bladencounty.org/rogers-wish-project-continues-in-bladen-county/
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