Community stuffs the truck for Gate House fundraiser

Apr. 20—DANVILLE — The Danville area community came together to fill a box truck with donations in support of The Gate House Friday and Saturday.

The homeless shelter's Stuff the Truck event began Friday at 8 a.m., though Executive Director Thomas Dougher said the nonprofit had been accepting donations for around two months prior and had a van full of donations before the truck even made its way to the Danville shelter.

All items collected for the fundraiser will be taken to Community Aid and The Gate House will receive 13 cents for every pound of items donated, according to Dougher.

On Friday, donors came to the Danville shelter with trailers full of items and the truck, which was donated by Agape, was more than halfway full on Friday evening. By 10:30 Saturday morning, about 10 people had already made drop offs, Dougher said.

Facility Advisor Shannon Dennis said she was shocked at the community's response to the fundraiser.

"We've had so many people come and I'm excited to let them know just how much it actually helped," she said.

The executive director said this was the first time The Gate House had partnered with Community Aid for this sort of event. When he met with staff at the Shamokin Dam Community Aid, Dougher was impressed to learn Google results show it to be the largest thrift store in the world, he said.

Along with working together for fundraisers, through the Community Aid partnership, The Gate House is given $300 in gift cards every quarter which they are able to give out to their residents, Dougher said.

As far as the Stuff the Truck event goes, Dougher said he was hopeful. "We'll see how it goes," he said. "I think it's been pretty successful."

Shannon Dennis said the shelter would look at doing a similar fundraiser in the future after seeing the turnout over the weekend.