Merry Christmas and a Happier New Year!

[John Helge]

MANISTEE COUNTY DEMOCRATS:

Last week was a very good week for Manistee County Democrats!  

On Wednesday a great group of volunteers gathered in the bitter cold to help distribute over 9000 lbs. of groceries to over 300 food insecure families from the Feeding America Food Truck that is sponsored every month by the Manistee Friendship Society.  We worked hard together and were done by 11:30am.  The snow and wind held off until we were finished and then it unleased its fury!  The Friendship Society got some great news from the folks running the West Michigan Feeding America Food Truck with their commitment to providing monthly service throughout 2026 thanks to the combination of monetary support and the great volunteers who turn out every month to help.  

Last Friday we held our annual Holiday Party potluck dinner at the Manistee Township Hall.  We had some great dishes to share and enjoyed a famous Sanders' ham. We had a wonderful presentation by two young women representing the Manistee High School Youth In Government organization (YIG).  They did a great job informing us about this important extra-curricular opportunity for students to explore and learn more about our representative form of government.  They are raising funds to enable a group of students to attend the state-wide YIG convocation at the state capitol in Lansing early in March 2026.  Each student desiring to attend this 4-day conference must raise a minimum of $500 to cover their transportation, hotel, and meals.  The 50/50 raffle at this event raised a total of $650 on top of the $100 each we presented to the two students at the dinner.  We hope you can consider helping these young people raise the estimated $7,500 they will need to send 15 students from Manistee High School to this conference.  You can donate now using this link:  https://gofund.me/2a6c26686

If you are looking for that special gift for the person who has everything and is always difficult to buy for please consider looking at the Manistee County Democratic Party on-line auction site using this link:  https://www.manisteecountydemocrats.us/auction-items.html.  This site will be open year round, but right now there are some real values available for that special someone in your life!

We all should be taking a well deserved break during the holiday season to rest, relax, and enjoy friends and family.  Rest assured that 2026 will be a better year for all of us as we work together to elect representatives up and down the ballot who will have our trust and support to speak truth to power and help make our county, state, and country better for all of us!  Your friends in the Manistee County Democratic Party wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  

John M. Helge

johnm...@gmail.com

616-915-2403