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INDIANA

(Anderson) Herald Bulletin. In memory of a parent and teacher who had died of cancer, 54 fifth-grade PLUS students at Westvale School raised $1,500 bowling to benefit the American Cancer Society.

(Auburn) Evening Star. In their fourth Make A Difference Day effort, 11 middle-schoolers from Girl Scout Cadette Troop No. 476 sewed 52 small bags, filled with 400 personal items, and donated them to the De Kalb County Operation Shelter.

(Columbus) Republic. 100 students, staff and parents at Mount Healthy Elementary School collected and donated about 175 food items to Love Chapel, a food bank.

(Crawfordsville) Journal Review. Food, clothing, diapers and other baby supplies were collected and donated by some 45 Crawfordsville Holiday Inn employees for needy children who receive free medical treatment at the Well Baby Clinic.

Decatur Daily Democrat. 12 students in Bellmont High School's Service Leadership class treated residents at Golden Meadows Nursing Home to a "Halloween Hoedown."

Elkhart Truth. 100 residents and staff at Hubbard Hill Estates Retirement Community raised $300 at a bake sale to buy food, medicine and supplies for the homeless and needy through Church Community Services.

(Franklin) Daily Journal. Residents of the Todd-Aikens Health Care Center at Johnson County Memorial Hospital collected $400 and bought clothing, toys, games, toiletries and more for needy moms and kids at the Tara Center for Mothers and Babies in Nineveh, a rehab center for mothers being treated for drug or alcohol dependency.

(Kendallville) News-Sun. 80 needy families were given beds, appliances, washers, dryers and other furniture in a huge giveaway organized by 12 members of Faith in Action, an adult Sunday school class at Trinity Church United Methodist.

Kokomo Tribune. For their third Make A Difference Day project, members of the Maple Crest Student Council rallied 1,800 youths, adults, firefighters, police officers and others to collect 10,000 items, such as clothes, books, toys and food, for the Kokomo Rescue Mission. Student council members and their parents also cleaned and worked at the shelter.

(Lafayette) Journal and Courier. 300 Jefferson High School students led younger schoolchildren in collecting toiletries, school supplies and toys to fill 400 Operation Friendship Boxes for the American Red Cross to benefit hurricane victims in Mexico, U.S. troops in Bosnia and needy local families.

(Logansport) Pharos-Tribune. Students at Fairview Elementary School distributed 340 books they had written and illustrated to Logansport Memorial Hospital, Cass County Children's Home, Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis and other nursing homes, day-care centers and businesses.

(Marion) Chronicle-Tribune. In memory of murdered Lagro volunteer firefighter Bill Swan, 65 friends and relatives installed 39 smoke detectors in homes, replaced 100 batteries, collected several boxes of food for the needy and presented a fire safety program to children.

(Michigan City) Sunday News-Dispatch. Janet Bauer from the Alyce Bartholomew Children's Museum, with family and friends, constructed a playhouse and performed puppet shows for 150 residents at three health care facilities.

(New Albany) Tribune. Indiana University Alumni Club's food drive rallied 10,000 and yielded 10 tons of food to feed the hungry in southern Indiana. Kentucky Harvest trucks delivered the food to a shelter in Jeffersonville.

(Noblesville) Daily Ledger. Girl Scout Troop No. 631 organized fifth- and sixth-graders at Westfield Intermediate School in collecting 250 items of food for the Open Doors pantry.

(Richmond) Palladium-Item. Six AmeriCorps members and two students in the Twenty-First Century Scholars Program volunteered at a local animal HELP Shelter, caring for stray or mistreated animals.

(Terre Haute) Tribune Star. Led by students at West Vigo High School, 1,300 students cleaned and landscaped West Terre Haute; collected food, clothing, baby diapers, toys, toiletries and pet supplies for charities and needy families; and created postcards for Riley Children's Hospital patients.

IOWA

(Council Bluffs) Daily Nonpareil. Members of Area IV American Baptist Women Ministries in Council Bluffs collected and donated $217 to the Evangel Baptist Church in Ghana, West Africa, to help needy youngsters pay school tuition in this poverty-stricken area.

Des Moines Sunday Register. 500 students, teachers, artists and residents of Lake City beautified and improved the economically distressed Lincoln Elementary School by painting murals and pictures on walls and floors.

(Dubuque) Telegraph Herald. The Dubuque Target store led eight other local stores -- Theisen's, Wal-Mart, K mart, Venture, Econo Foods, Eagle Foods, Hy-Vee Foods and Nordstrom -- in selling root beer floats in a Floats for Food project, raising $1,700 for the Dubuque Food Pantry.

Iowa City Press-Citizen. 335 students at Ernest Horn Elementary School collected more than $775 in pennies for the Iowa City Animal Shelter to pay for food, toys and other necessities for abandoned and abused animals.

KANSAS

Hutchinson News. Carolyn Schneider and Sharon Sturgis organized the collection of 94 teddy bears for children at the Family Crisis Center.

Kansas City Kansan. 26 foster care teenagers in the Kaw Valley Center's independent living program helped serve lunch at two area soup kitchens, decorated and took part in a Halloween party at a retirement community, and collected clothing, books and toys for a thrift store.

Lawrence Journal-World. 30 volunteers from the University of Kansas collected 6,200 cans of food from spectators at that day's football game against Nebraska and donated them to five pantries.

Leavenworth Times. The Les Novelettes Club adopted a single mother and her three children after reading about the woman's plight in The Leavenworth Times. The club members kicked off their effort on Make A Difference Day by delivering a variety of household items to the woman. They have pledged to help her get her GED and serve as mentors to her over the next year.

Olathe Daily News. Members of the Kansas City, Kan., Pilots -- a professional organization dedicated to community service -- cleaned out their closets and donated more than 4,000 pounds of clothing, books and household items to a homeless shelter and a battered women's center.

Salina Journal. 700 volunteers organized by the Neighborhood Networkers, a coalition of volunteer coordinators in Barton County, collected 7,781 pounds of cans with a total value of $4,019 for "Kans for Kids," which raises money for children with cancer.

KENTUCKY

(Henderson) Gleaner. 12 employees of Farmers Bank of Henderson and their families weeded, raked and tidied up the children's playground and picnic area for the Head Start Program at South Heights Elementary School.

(Louisville) Courier-Journal. Emilie McElroy-Hitsman, joined by her children and friends, collected $500 to buy five cribs for needy families being helped by Opportunities for Life.

(Madisonville) Messenger. For their third Make A Difference Day project, 70 Spanish class students at Madisonville-North Hopkins High School distributed 1,000 free packets of vegetable and flower seeds and gardening instructions -- enough to provide food for thousands.

Richmond Register. St. Mark Middle School students, teachers and parents cleaned up trash along the city's eastern bypass. Wal-Mart supplied lunch, garbage bags and gloves.

LOUISIANA

(Bogalusa) Sunday News. 40 members of the Washington Parish NAACP cleaned the yards of elderly people.

(Hammond) Daily Star. The Belle Oaks Garden Club held a "Funfare Fall Carnival" for 75 members of the local Boys and Girls Club.

(Lafayette) Sunday Advertiser. VFW Post No. 9822 in Judice held a Halloween party for 152 mentally disabled citizens and their families from throughout Lafayette, Judice, Duson, Scott and Carencro.

(Monroe) News-Star. 125 volunteers helped renovate a run-down park in Rayville by removing trash and installing and fixing playground equipment.

(New Iberia) Daily Iberian. The United Way of Iberia, along with 13 civic and youth organizations, collected more than 2 tons of food and toiletries, as well as $750 in cash, for local charities.

Shreveport (La.) Times. The Northwest Louisiana Coalition for the Mentally Ill recruited volunteers from 45 organizations to pass out information about mental health resources at a shopping mall.

MAINE

(Augusta) Kennebec Journal. More than 900 students and staff members from the Marancook Community School, Winthrop School and Hall-Dale School collected more than 18,000 pounds of food and delivered it to four food banks on Make A Difference Day.

Bangor Daily News. 40 Girl Scouts from Hermon and their mothers collected eight truckloads of clothing, food and other supplies for the Greater Bangor Shelter.

(Biddeford) Journal Tribune Weekend. Members of the Bar Mills Community Church collected 569 cans of tuna and 340 jars of peanut butter for the Buxton Food Pantry.

(Lewiston) Sunday Sun-Journal. More than 250 volunteers from the School Administrative District No. 52 in central Maine collected stuffed animals for hospitals, shelters and police and fire departments; volunteered their time at food banks; cleaned community parks, ski paths and nature trails; beautified school grounds; and did odd jobs for senior citizens.

(Waterville) Sunday Sentinel. 18 volunteers joined forces to renovate and repair equipment at the Inside Out Playground, a non-profit children's organization in central Maine. The volunteers painted the walls of the facility, and repaired climbing structures and toys.

MARYLAND

(Annapolis) Sunday Capital. The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration organized a statewide road and highway cleanup effort, attracting 3,500 volunteers.

Carroll County Times. The Harford County 4-H clubs organized 17 groups to clean up Lake Serene in Edgewood. More than 200 volunteers removed bottles, tires, bicycles and shopping carts from the lake and planted shrubs and flowers along its banks.

Cumberland Sunday Times-News. 700 volunteers at Frostburg State University collected for charities almost 250 toys and 200 pounds of canned food from those attending homecoming festivities.

(Easton) Sunday Star. 600 volunteers from the non-profit Talbot Paramedics Foundation went door to door checking smoke detectors. The volunteers visited more than 10,000 homes and installed about 3,000 detectors.

Montgomery Journal. 30 Connecticut Avenue/Greenwood Knolls Citizens Association members transformed an overgrown area at a busy intersection into a mini-park by removing dead vegetation and planting 2,000 flowers.

MASSACHUSETTS

(Attleboro) Sun Chronicle. 24 students from Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School conducted a penny drive at the school and used the money to sponsor two needy children through an international organization. Their sponsorship began on Make A Difference Day.

Boston Sunday Herald. 50 members of the Society of Cultural and Historic Preservation in Revere took part in a walk-a-thon and raised $3,000 to renovate a turn-of-the-century building in town into a cultural center.

(Brockton) Sunday Enterprise. 100 people removed 2,000 pounds of garbage from the Salisbury River, including 35 tires and 15 shopping carts.

(Fall River) Sunday Herald News. The First Congregational Church auctioned off antiques, jams, jellies and gift certificates from businesses to raise $4,000 to buy 100 child safety seats for parents who could not afford them.

(Fitchburg) Sentinel & Enterprise. Peggy Anthony and her family filled 15 large garbage bags with donated jackets, snowsuits, adult and children's clothing for the Family Friendly Shelter in Worcester.

(Framingham) Middlesex News. 70 Cub Scouts in Holliston collected hundreds of food items for a food pantry.

(Greenfield) Recorder. The women's group at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Orange collected hundreds of over-the-counter cold and flu medicines, as well as natural cold remedies such as chicken soup, for a homeless shelter.

(Lowell) Sun. 17 members of the Downtown Lowell Business Association agreed to give 10 percent of profits from sales on Make A Difference Day to charity. More than $1,000 was raised.

Milford Daily News. 72 people from St. Mary's Parish in Franklin cooked hot meals -- ranging from fish and meatloaf to smoked shoulder and roast beef -- for 92 elderly residents.

(Northampton) Daily Hampshire Gazette. Nine members of USJB Council St. Thomas d'Aquin brought more than $500 worth of used clothing to Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Hampden County.

(Quincy) Patriot Ledger. The Ladies Benevolent Society of the First Church in Weymouth allowed needy families to fill one 30-gallon garbage bag each with clothing, household items and toys at their thrift shop.

Salem News. Students from Higgins Middle School sold thousands of donated household items -- from microwave ovens to used books -- at a community yard sale, raising more than $1,000 for a Peabody homeless shelter.

Taunton Daily Gazette. Students at the Coyle and Cassidy High School marked the fifth anniversary of their Food Pantry program on Make A Difference Day by collecting and handing out more than 367 bags of groceries to needy families.

MICHIGAN

(Adrian) Sunday Telegram. More than 2,600 volunteers of all ages worked on various projects throughout Lenawee County, among them collecting clothing for the needy, helping at homeless shelters and preparing care packages for foster children.

Alpena News. 40 elementary and high school students transformed the classrooms at the Hinks School in Alpena into a community center for senior citizens. The students spent the day entertaining the seniors by playing musical instruments, and playing games and chatting with them.

(Bad Axe) Huron Daily Tribune. 32 volunteers headed to the Port Austin-Kinde Preschool to bring its playground up to state standards by laying sand under jungle gyms, swings, slides and the merry-go-round, and making minor repairs. Children attending the school had been unable to use the playground for the previous two years.

Battle Creek Enquirer. Dan and Linda Garcia, with their four children, went door to door soliciting support -- and $3,000 -for their community's only homeless shelter.

(Benton Harbor-St. Joseph) Herald-Palladium. Carly, Chelsea and Ernie Knauf, ages 9 to 12, collected more than 200 videos from schools, churches, libraries and stores and donated them to the children's ward at the Lakeland Medical Center. Videos rated R and PG-13 were given to the adult cancer ward.

Detroit News & Detroit Free-Press. Kathy Smith spent nearly $700 on materials and crafted 40 stuffed animals and baby quilts for the newly opened "baby pantry" in St. Johns.

(Greenville) Daily News. The 4-H Clubs of Ionia County held a Halloween party for children from the local Head Start program and domestic violence shelter.

Lansing State Journal. 40 Capital Area Literacy Coalition volunteers collected more than 16,000 new and gently used children's books for local elementary schools, community centers and churches.

Midland Daily News. 45 volunteers from St. Brigid's Quiltmakers participated in a quilt-making "bee" and completed 200 brightly colored quilts and afghans for AIDS patients, the homeless and sick and needy children.

(Mount Pleasant) Morning Sun. Barbara Dewey opened a room in her family-owned funeral home as a free lending library and entertainment center, stocking it with books, videos, televisions and VCRs.

(Petoskey) News-Review. Judy McCaffrey organized 24 children and 14 adults to help seven elderly families with yardwork.

(Port Huron) Times Herald. Volunteers from the Woman's Life Club 11 held a reading fair at a library. Children listened to stories, created books about themselves, made illustrations and exchanged books.

Sault (Ste. Marie) Sunday. 55 Hospice of Chippewa County volunteers planted more than 300 daffodils, tulips and crocuses at an assisted-living home. They also painted four rooms.

MINNESOTA

(Hibbing) Daily Tribune. Volunteers baked and sold more than 800 traditional Cornish pasties, a popular meat pie, and raised more than $3,000 for the Forget-Me-Not-Foundation, a non-profit recreational organization for people with disabilities.

(Minneapolis) Star Tribune. Patricia Kisling collected hundreds of baby items, including clothes, blankets, infant seats and toys, for child care providers whose homes were damaged by massive flooding along the Red River last spring.

(Rochester) Post-Bulletin. The fifth-grade Sunday school class at First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie went door to door collecting 237 pounds of food donations for a pantry.

St. Cloud Times. Members of the Youth Service Club from Technical High School worked with a charity to deliver new winter coats to 80 low-income senior citizens.

(Virginia) Mesabi Daily News. Members of Resurrection Catholic Church in Eveleth collected nearly 1,500 pounds of food for a food pantry, more than tripling their previous year's effort.

MISSISSIPPI

Greenville Delta Democrat-Times. 400 volunteers worked throughout Arcola, Elizabeth, Glen Allen, Greenville and Hollandale renovating buildings, schools and parks, and cleaning up highways.

Hattiesburg American. Members of the Pride of Petal 4-H Club took homemade Halloween treats to kids at a hospital and teens at a mental hospital. They also collected canned goods at a grocery store for a soup kitchen.

(Jackson) Clarion Ledger. 3,500 volunteers statewide completed 62 projects, including community cleanups, park renovations and beautifications, and clothing, book and food drives.

Meridian Star. The St. John's Volunteers Homemakers Club collected 300 cans of food and 400 pounds of clothes for the Salvation Army.

MISSOURI

(Cape Girardeau) Southeast Missourian. Volunteers from the St. Vincent de Paul Church delivered stoves, refrigerators, beds and other furniture to three needy households.

(Columbia) Daily Tribune. 140 people decorated, stuffed and delivered 1,100 Christmas stockings to a volunteer center, which gave them to needy families over the holidays.

(Independence) Examiner. Friends and family attending Joe and Ellen Wille's 40th wedding anniversary party on Make A Difference Day brought items to be donated to a food pantry, enabling the pantry to prepare 441 additional meals.

(Park Hills) Daily Journal Sunday. Volunteers from Christmas in the Valley Inc. raised $500 at a yard sale/bake sale. The money was used to feed the needy during the holidays.

(Poplar Bluff) Daily American Republic. The Ellington Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce held a fall festival, parade and auction that raised more than $3,000 for, among other things, local scholarship funds and a children's eyeglasses bank.

Sedalia Democrat. Volunteers participated in a cleanup and coat giveaway. Others did carpentry work and electrical repairs for senior citizens and disabled residents.

Springfield News-Leader. Students from Republic High School and Middle School collected 15,000 items of clothing during a week-long drive, sorted the clothes and delivered them to a social services organization.

MONTANA

Great Falls Tribune. Between July and October, Eve Longfellow of Helena collected more than $12,000 in food, clothing and cash for a homeless shelter. She delivered the items on Make A Difference Day.

NEBRASKA

Beatrice Daily Sun. 50 pupils from five elementary schools participated in an event where they jumped rope to raise more $1,200 from sponsors for the American Heart Association.

(North Platte) Telegraph. Seven cousins, ages 9 to 16, formed YOUTH (Youth Offering yoU Their Help); they collected and delivered 200 stuffed animals to two nursing homes, despite severe winter weather.

NEVADA

Las Vegas Review-Journal/ Sun. 75 volunteers fanned out in Cedar City to clean up parks; reroof baseball dugouts; work on hiking, biking and walking trails; and deliver food and clothing to a homeless shelter.

Reno Gazette-Journal. 18 lawyers set up a booth at a mall and gave out free legal advice to 66 people on everything from family law, wills and bankruptcy to grandparents' rights.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

(Concord) Sunday Monitor. Bobbi Thomason, 13, sat outside a grocery store and collected $1,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

(Dover) Foster's Daily Democrat. 25 Strafford School students held a car wash, bake sale, book and food drive to raise money and donations for charities.

Keene Sentinel. Residents of Hinsdale cleaned and painted rooms at Hinsdale Elementary School.

(West Lebanon-Hanover) Valley News. More than 120 people attended a charity dinner and raised $8,000 for the High Horses Therapeutic Riding Program, a non-profit organization that uses recreational horseback riding to help people with disabilities.

(Nashua) Sunday Telegraph. One group of volunteers from the Grace Lutheran Church painted and did general maintenance work at a home for girls and that of a single mother, while another helped at a pantry.

NEW JERSEY

Asbury Park Press. 200 walkers raised more than $35,000 in a walk-a-thon for Kevin Stover, paralyzed in a skiing accident in December 1996; 10 percent will go to spinal cord research, at Kevin's request.

Press of Atlantic City. The Ruth Newman Shapiro Cancer & Heart Fund offered free first-time mammograms to 36 women without health insurance at Hamilton Mall.

(Bridgewater) Sunday Courier-News. Eighth-graders from Holland Township School collected 1,095 pounds of non-perishable items for a pantry and cleaned up roadways. Other volunteers raised $300 in a 20-mile bike-a-thon for a food pantry.

(Camden) Courier-Post. 100 volunteers from the Clearview Regional School District fanned out into the community to help senior citizens with chores and home improvements.

(Jersey City) Jersey Journal. 90 people participated in a food and toy drive at the Workmen's Circle Jewish School.

(New Brunswick) Home News Tribune. The Emma L. Arleth School PTA collected some 1,000 pairs of mittens and gloves for a local aid agency.

(Newton) New Jersey Sunday Herald. The Florence M. Burd Middle School student council organized a blood and bone marrow drive, at which 15 people became bone marrow tissue donors and 37 donated blood.

(Parsippany/Morristown) Daily Record. 60 Girl Scouts in Randolph donated 150 bags of children's clothing and six boxes of adult clothing to the AIDS Resource Foundation in Newark, Elizabeth and Jersey City.

(Passaic/Dover) North Jersey Herald & News. Melissa Centrella, 20, who suffers from a neurological disorder and is nearly bedridden, organized friends to help her collect children's items for a local organization that works with young victims of cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and autism.

(Trenton) Trentonian. 13 young people from Anchor House, a home for runaways and homeless and abused kids, visited a nursing home to deliver pumpkins and homemade gifts.