Warwick Lions Club presents check for $2,933.71 to Salvation Army

Warwick — During the holiday season, members of the Warwick Lions Club and Leo Club, a youth service organization sponsored by the Lions, stood outside Shoprite and Akins Pharmacy, ringing the bell for their annual Salvation Army Kettle Campaign. At a club meeting on Thursday, Feb. 2, Stuart Durland, first vice president of the Warwick Lions Club, was able to present Russell Bartholomew of the Salvation Army with a check for $2,933.71, thanks to the generosity of local residents. Bartholomew is the director of the service extension office of the Salvation Army Hudson Valley West. As an eleven year veteran of the organization, he is now located at Salvation Army Offices at 234 Van Ness St. in Newburgh. At the meeting, Bartholomew thanked the Lions and described the extensive and generally unpublicized work done by the Salvation Army in the Orange County area. For example, the group spent more than $29,000 in the last year to distribute 638 toys to needy children, 196 food baskets to needy families, and 387 holiday turkeys to families that could not afford one. Bartholomew specifically thanked the Warwick Lions, who have collected more than $17,000 since 1999 during the annual holiday bellringing drive. In closing, Bartholomew urged the Lions to help publicize the good work done throughout the nation by the Salvation Army. His sentiments were echoed by several stories, told to bellringers during the holiday collection by strangers, who regaled them with heartfelt and personal stories of the Salvation Army’s work.