Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND – During the holiday season generosity is abundant, but during the rest of the year the generosity isn’t always as abundant yet the needs are still there. The Washakie County Ministerial Association, funded by the local churches, attempts to fill in the gaps year round with many different programs to help those in need, community member and traveler alike.

Washakie County Ministerial Association president Mike Martinson stated that while the food bank is their largest program, the association has other areas that offer assistance as well. “Our main area is the food bank that’s where our primary money goes to but we also throughout the year will help people with utilities if they need them. We have a process that they go through, they usually just call one of the pastors or myself and then we just start that process.

While the association purchases items for the food bank throughout the year, the association is on a limited budget and relies on generous community members to help fill the need and is always in need of donations of food but also donations of items such as toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and more.

Travelers who find themselves stranded in the area for whatever reason can also receive assistance from the Ministerial Association. “We do provide vouchers for gasoline for people sometimes if they need a tank of gas, especially if they are coming through town or they are leaving town. We used to provide bus tickets sometimes but we don’t have the bus route anymore. But every now and then we will have people that need some gas, so we have a gas station that we go through,” Martinson said. “We do motel rooms for people, generally that’s when someone is going through town and needs a place to stay and again there is a criteria and process that we take them through. If somebody is traveling through, you know it used to work a lot different with the buses, again, so one would get off the bus and they would need a place to stay so we would give them a hotel room and a bus ticket out of town if they are moving on and run out of money. But we do still offer the motel rooms to people when they need them,” he added.

Another big project for the Ministerial Association is the backpack program. The backpack program helps families in need obtain school supplies. “The last couple of years we have had people sign up for them and that was just so that we had a pretty good count so that I don’t have too much left over, just laying around. That usually takes place in August, so we start that process around July of getting people, this year all through July I had people sign up and then in August they came and picked those up,” Martinson said. He added that he contacts the schools ahead of time to know what each class requires for supplies to avoid buying a surplus.

The Ministerial Association also helps families during the holiday season with Christmas baskets which enable families, who might not be able to afford it, a Christmas dinner. Applications for the baskets are taken the week before Thanksgiving and Martinson creates orders which he gives to both grocery stores in town and the grocery stores fill the orders. Martinson said that this year 108 Christmas baskets will be delivered by community member volunteers, the fire department and law enforcement in December.

The Angel Tree runs hand in hand with the Christmas baskets. “So what happens is when we have people sign up for the Christmas baskets, if they have kids of the correct age, which is fifth grade and younger typically, there is a back side of the application and they can fill out the information. Then I give all that information to Nancy Fredrick and she organizes that for me, she has been doing that for several years. She organizes all of that and gets with the banks and the businesses,” Martinson said.

“Anyone interested in donating to the Washakie County Ministerial Association may do so by sending the donations to: Washakie County Ministerial Association, P.O. Box 851, Worland, WY 82401,” Martinson said.

Food and toiletry donations can be brought to the food pantry at 620 Big Horn Ave. Monday, Wednesday and Friday between the hours of 9:30-11:30 a.m. or by scheduling a drop off time by calling 1-307-347-6123.