Change is coming to the Care Packages for the Troops Drive.
Longtime organizer Diane Tebbetts says there will be a new entity organizing the drive after she retires in a few days.
Tebbetts, a veteran, has been working on the drive for 17 years. The drive started through the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 2003. Ralph and Diane Tebbetts worked together on subsequent drives before Ralph Tebbetts moved to Georgia in 2011. Diane Tebbetts has been the lead organizer since.
The FreedomFest Committee is now the organizing group effective Aug. 9, although Tebbetts will stay on as a volunteer. Emporia Main Street Director Casey Woods says the FreedomFest Committee’s drive will start next month and roll through the FreedomFest event in early November.
Tebbetts says money collected earlier through her drive is being sent to other veteran-centric groups. FreedomFest, the All Veterans Memorial, Tunnel 2 Towers and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1980 will split the remaining funds. The Tunnel 2 Towers donation is in memory of Sgt. First Class Travis Bauchman of Garden City, who was killed in action in Iraq in August 2007.
For more information, call Emporia Main Street at 620-340-6430 or go online to www.emporiamainstreet.com.
