DONATIONS

EECU CU, Fort Worth, Texas, for the 2nd year in a row, has sold the most tickets, 5,025, for the Texas Child Identification Program, which provides inkless child identification kits to school age children throughout the state. In all, EECU raised $29,650 through direct ticket sales and proceeds from a charity golf tournament. Because each year, 800,000 children disappear and fewer than 2% of parents have a copy of their children's fingerprints that could be used to help find them, staff at EECU and other CUs hope to raise awareness of the problem through these efforts. Fire Police City County FCU, Fort Wayne, Ind., members, staff, dogs & horses all walked for cancer fund-raising during the 2nd Annual "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" 5-mile walk sponsored by the American Cancer Society last fall. Rhode Island State Employees CU, Providence, has conducted two fund-raisers: they sold candy bars at their branches to raise $2,270 with the help of members' donations for the R.I. Breast Cancer Coalition, to help fund breast cancer research; and last fall, staff raised $500 for the Leukemia Society of R.I. during the Leukemia Society's "Costumed-For-A-Cure" project. Costumed staff members distributed candy to show their appreciation for donations. Royal Oakland Community CU, Royal Oak, Mich., and Kimball and Dondero high schools have held a personal care drive, donating items such as new combs and toothbrushes to Oakland County Food Bank. CU members donated new hats, scarves and mittens to decorate the lobby Xmas tree. Dondero students did a poinsettia sale, contributing half the profits to the drive; and children from nearby Upton Elementary collected 8 boxes of food to add to the collection. In addition, ROCCU also helped nearby Whittier Elementary with its fund-raising efforts to purchase 200 books and dolls ("Jingles for the Jester") for sick children at William Beaumont Hospital. U-Lane-O CU, Eugene, Ore., has joined with local T.V. stations, businessmen and women and governmental officials to help spread the word about the dangers of drug and alcohol through sponsorship of "Drug Wars" One Family's Battle." This is film about a young man addicted to heroin, and the effect it had on him and his family and others close to him. - lide@cutimes.com