NEWS

Group collects winter items for people in need

Andrew Carter
Reporter

MARION - A group of Marion County residents is banding together to help people in need warm up this weekend.

Maryjo Mundey, human resources manager at the Ohio State University at Marion and a member of Marion First Church of the Nazarene, is spearheading the Loving Scarves campaign, which will provide assorted winter accessories such as scarves, hats and mittens. She said the plan to is to hang bags of items this Saturday in selected areas around Marion.

Mundey said she borrowed the idea from a group in Tiffin after seeing a post on Facebook about a similar outreach in that community. In Tiffin, according a Facebook post by The Advertiser-Tribune, the volunteers tied the scarves to trees in the downtown area when the temperatures dipped to the freezing mark. They are free to anyone to take as needed.

Maryjo Mundey (right), human resources manager at The Ohio State University at Marion, packs articles of donated clothing into bags with the help of Rachel Hopper (left) and Cheri King (center). The clothing was donated to Maryjo's 'Loving Scarves campaign' to help get clothing for those in need.

"I thought about it for a good week, and then one morning, I just woke up and thought, 'Oh my gosh, we can do this in Marion,' " she said. "It may be a small scale, but why not try it? What can it hurt? So, I just put out a note on Facebook to all my family and friends, and people were like, 'I'm in.' Then I came to work and started talking about it."

Over the past two weeks, the idea has blossomed into a project that has drawn in volunteers from the community as well as staff members and students at Ohio State Marion.

"It just kind of has grown," Mundey said. "People are giving me cash to buy scarves and hats, and right now's a perfect time because everything's on sale."

Many of the items that will be given away are handmade, while others were purchased from local retailers such as Goodwill.

"We took some of the money and bought a lot of fleece, and I made a bunch of scarves," Mundey said. "My neighbor, Pat Berry, is sewing hats. She said she had at least 30 hats she's working on right now. Plus, my daughter brought me a whole bag full of stuff, and some of my friends from church have given me stuff. Some people here at Ohio State have given me cash to go buy stuff. I've got a bunch of people that are helping out with this."

Mundey's office mates, Cheri King and Rachel Hopper, are assisting with the project. King is the human resource office's administrative assistant, while Hopper is a student worker in the office.

"I have kids, grandkids, and just to see anybody going without hats, gloves, scarves, it kind of hurts your heart," King said.

Hopper, an alumna of Pleasant High School who is a pharmacy student at Ohio State Marion, said she joined the effort because of her personal experience with a family member who fell on hard times.

"I actually have a brother who had a difficult living situation," she said. "Thinking about people in those shoes who would've appreciated something like this that we can offer is why I'm doing this. It really touches me that we are doing this."

Volunteers are scheduled to meet Thursday evening to finish loading the bags that will be distributed on Saturday, Mundey said. She said the plan is to place the bags in the neighborhood surrounding the Beacon of Hope Food Pantry on East Mark Street, along North Main Street and in Lincoln Park.

"We'll place them on Saturday morning and then check in the afternoon to see how many are left," Mundey said. "If they take them, great. If not, we'll just collect them and give them to a shelter."

Anyone interested in volunteering to distribute the clothing or to donate money or items can contact Mundey at mundey.2@osu.edu.

eacarter@gannett.com

740-375-5154

Twitter: @AndrewCarterMS