The Maryville Ministerial Fellowship donated $843.37 to the Nodaway County Senior Center’s Angels for Seniors program.

Representatives from several denominations in the Maryville Ministerial Fellowship donated $843.37 to the Nodaway County Senior Center Angels for Seniors program. Those pictured are, front: Linda Hayden, Community of Christ Church; Nodaway County Senior Center Administrator Amie Firavich, Senior Center Funding Committee Chair Delores Collins, who is receiving the money from Jonathon Mitchell of the First Presbyterian Church; back: Louise Horner, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church; Scott Moon, First United Methodist Church; Paul McKim, Laura Street Baptist Church; and Wendy Deering-Poynter, First Christian Church.

For more than 40 years, the fellowship has held an annual ecumenical community Thanksgiving service. The service had 115 participants with members representing nine dominations in Maryville: Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Disciples of Christ, Community of Christ, Latter-day Saints and Calvary Chapel. Members of the Nodaway Chorale sang a special musical number.

Each year money collected during the service offering is donated to a community agency or ministry program.

“The cooperation among the churches in Maryville is great,” Louise Horner, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, said.

This year, members felt led to donate the funds to the Angels for Seniors program due to the Nodaway County Senior Center losing all of its funding from the Area Agency on Aging. The monetary gift will help fund home-delivered meals for senior citizens in Nodaway County. The contribution will provide approximately 170 meals.

“We felt a burden to meet the needs of those served in our senior center. We wanted to elevate awareness in our community,” Pastor Paul McKim of Laura Street Baptist Church stated.

Since October, the senior center has raised just over $7,000 for the program. Nodaway County Senior Center Administrator Amie Firavich stated she is thrilled with how the fundraising is going.

The center lost 40 percent of its funding this year, which Firavich estimated was close to $150,000. Anyone interested in contributing to the senior center meal fund may contact Firavich at 660.562.3999.