The Jamestown High School National Honor Society chapter and Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union are collaborating to help those in need.
John Felton, credit union chief executive officer, recently presented a $100 check to Hannah Bensink, Tom Campion and Hannah Samuelson to help the honor society's food drive efforts.
The JHS Honor Society has organized a canned food drive Thanksgiving project. Their goal is to provide local families with a Thanksgiving dinner. Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union's donation will help make that goal. The honor society can purchase the turkeys, pies and fresh rolls that are essential to a traditional Thanksgiving meal and donate them to JNP and the Salvation Army.
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From left are Hannah Bensink, Tom Campion, John Felton and Hannah Samuelson.
"The Thanksgiving Food Drive is not a new project for Honor Society," said Donnelle Conti, Honor Society adviser. "Past JHS Honor Society members have undertaken this mission, but it went by the wayside for some years. We are so excited to resurrect this worthwhile project and are pleased with the response that we have gotten."
Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union and the JHS Honor Society are also collaborating in another venture. Honor society students will prepare taxes, free of charge, for income-eligible people through the VITA program at Southern Chautauqua FCU. Southern Chautauqua FCU has been a United Way VITA site for the last five tax seasons.
"We are very enthusiastic about becoming a stand-alone VITA site where we can expand our volunteer base to include the JHS Honor Society students," Felton said. "We will provide all of the training and materials to the students so they have the opportunity to help people in our communities keep more of their hard-earned money."
The IRS encourages income eligible people to seek out a VITA site for free income tax preparation and e-filing. Most people have tax refunds within two weeks.