OPINION: Democrats thankful for a generous community

Every year, just before Thanksgiving, the Kootenai County Democrats sponsor a food drive. 

We put out a call for donations, and we set up a centrally located drive-through at Ramsey Park.

Volunteers bundled up and stood by to collect donations for five hours as donors drove in. This year there were about 75 drive-in donors.

People dropped off breakfast, lunch and dinner items, household goods, pet food and cash contributions.

The next day we had the loads weighed and tried to figure out how many meals that translates into. By our rough arithmetic, our donors generated some 6,000 meals.

We divide the contributions into two roughly equal halves, and deliver them with little fanfare to the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls Food Banks.

Democrats perform community outreach because it is in our hearts. It’s also written into our organizing documents.

We collect donated school supplies every September, and we are a sponsoring organization for the annual Panhandle Health Suicide Prevention Walk and the annual Pride in the Park Celebration.

One interesting feature of this year’s food drive was the large number of new donors. It was not just the “usual suspects,” the folks we can depend on year after year.

Some 50 percent of this year’s donors were new to us. Most were women, though there were plenty of men. Some were prominent individuals in local government and industry.

One young couple saw our blue signs out on Ramsey Road. They headed straight to Winco, and came back bearing several bags of goods.

A woman who was completely unknown to us dropped off enough donations to entirely fill the back of her SUV.

No one’s donation means more than any other.

The take home lesson is that our community is very generous.

This year’s donors gave $2,015 in cash and 2,000 pounds of food and household items.

This should be a great source of hope and pride to all of us throughout Kootenai County, especially when political involvement seems to divide more than unite us.

Cathy Kraus is the  chair of community outreach for the Kootenai County Democrats. Cathy and her husband Laurie have spearheaded this drive for years. 

Cathy said: “It's a great event, and though it's tiring, I get a real boost from it and it makes me so happy that people see the importance of the effort!”

Robust community outreach and service is one way we build a more perfect union. 

Democrats wish everyone in Kootenai County a Happy Thanksgiving.

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Evan Koch is chairman of the Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee.