'Making A Difference' with your help

THANK YOU, News 9 viewers, for really making a difference!  Trust me, in the beginning, it was lonely and sad inside our 50 foot long tractor trailer - an empty trailer - during the first couple of days of the News 9 Food Drive.  Oh, how quickly things changed!

Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Executive Director Rodney Bivens told me the need has never been greater nor the shelves any emptier in his nearly three decades with the Food Bank.  Last year the Food Bank's annual ‘Fight Hunger, Feed Hope' food drive raised over 400,000 pounds of food for needy families throughout Oklahoma.  This year we joined forces for nine days during the heart of their nearly month long effort.  You, your neighbors, your family and friends, everyone came through.  This year, with a week still remaining in their food drive, the Food Bank has collected over 500,000 pounds of food.  It's a record which continues to climb everyday leading up to May 23^rd, the final day of the food drive.

A big thank you to all area McDonald's, WalMarts and Oklahoma City Fire Stations which continue to serve as drop off locations throughout the metro.  Also a warm thanks to the Oklahoma RedHawks and the Bricktown Association for collecting can goods in exchange for free baseball tickets.  Many thanks to Take Me Away Travel in Purcell for also stepping up as an alternate drop off location for many viewers to our south who wanted to help.  And another awesome job by letter carriers throughout Oklahoma, and from coast to coast, for delivering mail and hauling back donated can goods on May 10 as they helped "Stamp Out Hunger".

We often broadcast our mission statement on air every time we put our News 9 logo on the screen - "Making A Difference".  This time we can truly say and feel like WE did, News 9 and our many loyal viewers.  And once again we can truly say and feel like we have the best viewers in the state.

Thank you News 9 viewers for ‘Making A Difference'!

Doug Warner