SHAMOKIN - Three gracious winners were presented $500 checks this past week as PPL and The News-Item helped them "pay it forward."
Mary Snyder of Mount Carmel, a member of Lift Your Spirits Performing Arts; Eileen Ramage, Mount Carmel, whose First United Methodist Church women's group knits hats and scarves for the homeless and other less fortunate; and MaryLou Herb, Shamokin, grandmother of a 13-year-old grandson with autism, will put their winnings from this year's Pay It Forward Challenge to good use.
They were chosen from a list of seven finalists to receive the funding this year, as announced several weeks ago. PPL has sponsored the contest for The News-Item every year since its inception four years ago.
Snyder and Lift Your Spirits were performing Friday night at the Mount Carmel Area Relay For Life when they were presented with their winnings. They were this year's judge's panel selection.
The nonprofit group of 30 to 40 members sings at churches and does shows throughout the area, entirely as volunteers. Snyder's intention was to use the money to buy a new microphone, music printouts, scripts, material for costumes or to pay rent for a practice hall.
"All of us keep doing our shows because the people who come to see us perform love it, and seeing their smiling faces of joy just melts our hearts," she wrote in her contest entry essay. "If we could take all their problems away just for a few hours, that means a lot to our group."
Ramage and her UMC group are second time winners. Last time, the $500 provided 250 hats and scarves for the Methodist Home for Children in Philadelphia, and 100 sets to Mission Central of the Methodist Church in Mechanicsburg. They also made 37 sleeping bags for the homeless, and stuck a hat and scarf set, as well as heavy-duty gloves, inside each bag.
She said many of the women who do the knitting are on fixed incomes, and "yarn is expensive," she noted.
"This is just a wonderful gift; it's so nice to just give something to someone," Ramage said.
The most emotional presentation involved Herb and her grandson at Shamokin Middle School this past week. The money will be used to buy educational programs and support other activities that these children "truly deserve," she said.
"Since some of the educational budget is being cut in all schools in Pennsylvania, this prize would help provide things such as materials that help with speech, improving motor skills and learning to interact with others," Herb wrote in her entry. "Autism is becoming more and more connected with children every day. One out of every hundred children is being diagnosed in our country alone."
The Pay It Forward challenge was developed by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and is inspired by a book of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The initiative involves newspapers statewide.