Merrill teens organize a sit-in to fight hunger

The community of Merrill has been hit hard by the tough economic times. Unemployment rates are up and more people are turning to the food pantry for help.

But, some area kids are helping the pantry in a unique way; they're sitting. It may not seem like these kids are doing much, but they are.

The event organizer, Stephen Rasmussen says, "The idea was we wanted a fun event that would attract a lot of people and with our pledge system we can raise a lot of money without putting a lot of strain on any one person."

Rasmussen is the summer manager for Merrill Productions, the cities Educational Access TV Station. He says he heard about the area's unemployment numbers and wanted to do something to help the Merrill Community. So, he thought of a 24-hour Sit-A-Thon. The idea is for people to gather pledges to donate either cash or non-perishable food items.

The longer they sit, the more donations they get. When it's all said and done, the proceeds go to the food pantry at St. Vincent De Paul's in Merrill.

Denis McCarthy, Conference President for St. Vincent says, "We're very delighted that they're willing to do this and bring light to the economic plight here in Merrill. There's a lot of people that are hurting and certainly the recovery of the economy hasn't happened in Merrill Wisconsin."

That's why every little bit raised in this school cafeteria, will make a big difference to this struggling community. So far, they've raised over $300 and collected all of this food and that's before even counting the pledges.

McCarthy says, "Everything helps and anything that occurs within this community that helps this community obviously is very important."

If you would like to help out the pantry, they accept both food and monetary donations at any time. Leaders say they're in need of all types of food, not just one particular item.