Dear Editor,

Friday night (Jan. 15) during the 64th annual Awards Banquet, the Oakdale Community Sharing organization was selected to be the co-recipient of the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award along with Oakdale C.A.P.S. organization.

We are very appreciative of this honor. But we need to share this award with many others. Our current volunteers who can be counted upon each and every week to provide hours of labor are a very vital link in our operation. Also we need to remember the hundreds of volunteers who preceded us at Community Sharing throughout the past 53 years. They are the ones who established the pattern and norms for us to follow and improve upon.

Equally sharing in the recent honor should be the Oakdale merchants, many local organizations and individual citizens throughout our community who support us in a monetary way as well as providing goods, which we distribute. Youth organizations also provide an important factor to our operation with their food drives and volunteer labor thorough out the year.

Without the collaborative support of our community, Oakdale Community Sharing would not exist. When we speak of our community we think of the area we serve, which includes Knights Ferry, Valley Home and all the space between. We truly do thank each and every one of you.

In my opinion, I believe a person would be hard pressed to find a better place in which to live. I am very thankful that I can call this community, my home. Thank you, once again.

William Dyer, President

Community Sharing Christian Center, Inc.