From start to finish, October was full of community service!
The Especially for You Race Against Breast Cancer was held on Sunday, October 1. More than 59 Linn Area employees and family members registered for the race, helping to raise more than $531,147 in registrations. This year’s 16,546 registrations broke the race’s previous record of 15,800 participants in 2022. For the fourth year, members of Linn Area marketing team created chalk art for the race. This year’s portrait honored Deb Kremer, whose courageous battle with breast cancer ended when she passed away in 2015.
During the first two weeks of October, we held our annual United Way campaign. Between fundraising activities and payroll deduction pledges, our employees raised $21,284.66 this campaign year!
Throughout the same two weeks, we held a friendly competition to see how much food we could collect for Mission of Hope. We ended up filling their pantry with 4,094 items that they needed the most.
We partnered with AARP to host a Community Shred Day on Saturday, October 14. More than 400 vehicles came through the line, dropping off nearly 12,000 pounds of confidential and personal papers that were shredded on site.
October wrapped up with Scouting for Food, the largest community outreach project in the Boy Scouts of America Hawkeye Area Council. Linn Area volunteers helped local scouts sort donated food items that will be distributed to HACAP’s food reservoir and other local agencies throughout seven counties in Eastern Iowa. Scouting for Food is an annual food drive that typically collects more than 93,000 pounds of food from Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and its neighboring areas.