Project Help aims for bigger and better 2005

By Staff
Jonathan Willis FCT Staff Writer
The Project Help, located in downtown Russellville, recently completed a successful Christmas season, providing clothes and gifts to 304 children and elderly in need throughout the county.
Now, director Wanda Keele hopes to use 2005 as a building block to reach out and help many more people.
Project Help opened its Russellville branch in 1985 as a way to meet the religious, charitable, scientific, literary and educational needs of the area's residents, Keele said.
During this recent Christmas season, Project Help gave gift bags filled with gifts, candy, socks, underwear and outer garments to many children in the county.
The bags also included Jimmy Dean sausage, coupons for free breadsticks from Five Star Pizza, free ice cream cones from McDonald's and $10 vouchers to be used at the Project Help store.
The store has been receiving three truckloads of clothing each week, with many items such as shirts and blue jeans from the Wrangler plant.
As of Jan. 10, the store will be open to the public selling all items for $1 or less. Because Project Help is a non-profit organization, the money raised from the sales will be used to keep the facility going year-round.
Project Help has been serving the needy of the area for 20 years, but they hope to be able to open their services up to a broader range of recipients soon.
Currently, Keele and her two children are busy re-stocking the store and cleaning from the Christmas season.