Bonneville County Commissioner - Dave Radford

A singular incident stands out as an example of the power for good of a single individual and the importance of volunteer cooperation.  One week before Christmas Dave Radford, Region VII chairman of Working Partners, called me, knowing I had a special interest in the Working Partners' effort.  Working Partners was established by former President Reagan to encourage volunteer efforts, a theme that has been continued by President Bush, who describes the volunteer work of Americans as a "thousand points of light."  The focus of Idaho Working Partners, under the direction of Sen. Steve Symms and Al Henderson, is to assist the Salvation Army in gathering canned goods.  Dave knew that the food supply provided by the Salvation Army was seriously depleted.  In fact, Captain Dillmond Lewis had reported that whereas the Salvation Army normally had 2 ½ truck loads of food to distribute, they were down to only half a truckload.

"What do you think, Sheila?" he asked.  "Is there time during this busy week before Christmas to put together a food drive for the Salvation Army?"

"If we can't gather food to feed the hungry the week before Christmas," was my response, "when can we?"

Dave spent three full days organizing.  He contacted six local grocery stores in Idaho Falls including the three Albertson stores, IGA, Buttreys, and Smith's Food King.  He expanded the effort to include Madison, Fremont, Teton, Butte, and Lemhi counties, with their communities.  Each store donated 200 cans of food, and gave permission for volunteers to stand outside the store to distribute a suggested list of food items to be donated to the Salvation Army.  Shoppers were invited to purchase a canned food item to drop in a shopping card on their way out.

Volunteers included area legislators who donated a portion of their Saturday before Christmas to assist in the project.  The area's full-time LDS missionaries, spending a Christmas away from their homes, gladly contributed their time.  Scouts assisted in the effort, too.  Because of the idea of a single individual who was willing to put his idea into action, and others who joined in to help, before the day was over 11,000 cans or pounds of food were gathered, including 7,600 in Bonneville County alone!