BUCKHANNON – The Band of Brothers have begun to distribute funds for their annual calendar sale by presenting a check to the Stockert Youth and Community Center and the Upshur County Healthy Grandfamilies program.
Band of Brothers members Al Tucker and Tim Rock jointly presented the two groups with a $6,000 check – $1,000 for the Grandfamilies program and $5,000 to SYCC.
“The SYCC folks are going to get Christmas presents because they know the families, they know the kids, so they’re trying to get kids presents they would want,” Tucker said. “It’s a win-win because when you’re working with people who know the target audience, so to speak, it makes it so much better than for us to try to figure it out.”
All the money donated stemmed from the 2023 calendar sale and donations made to the Band of Brothers, a local Christian men’s group.
“Donations have been fantastic; our goal was $45,000, and I think we’re at $48,000 now,” Tucker said. “I expect another couple $2,000 donations, so we’ll probably break $50,000 this year.”
Next on the Band of Brothers’ help list is the Upshur Parish Cooperative and Crosslines.
“This Friday, we have a truck rented, and we’re going to Sam’s Club with a list from the Parish House, and we’re going to really stock that place up,” he said. “We’re taking $2,500, and we’re going to get as much as we can and donate it to the Parish House.”
Upshur County Family Resources Network executive director Lori Ulderich Harvey said the group’s donation will keep the Healthy Grandfamilies program running and help them expand.
“We’re hoping to spread the programming throughout the county a little bit more, so this will help us go to different places in the county rather than just having it in town,” Harvey said. “We also have a grandparent’s cafe that’s every fourth Wednesday at SYCC at 10 a.m., and that’s just for any grandparent – it doesn’t have to be anyone that’s ever been in our program or ever will be in our program. If you’re taking care of a grandchild, you come down and talk to us, and everything stays in that room.”
SYCC director Debora Brockleman said they will be able to help more kids this year than ever before, thanks to the donation.
“This will allow us to do a lot more for many more kids,” Brockleman said. “This is truly a blessing because there are so many kids out there right now who need something – not even expensive things. There are some things they have told us they would like to have, and now we can try to make that happen.”
