The West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association (OMEGA) and the West Virginia chapters of the Make-A-Wish Foundation kicked off their fundraising drive Monday at the Par Mar Convenience Store at 720 Division St. in Parkersburg, allowing community members to buy stars to help grant wishes of local children with life-threatening medical conditions, Newsandsentinel.com reported.
The OMEGA/Make-A-Wish campaign stars sell for $1 each through OMEGA member convenience and grocery stores throughout the Virginia during August. All proceeds are expected to go toward funding wishes for area children.
In addition to selling stars, the local Par Mar stores also have other fundraisers underway to help the cause. At the Division Street store, hot dogs were being sold Monday to raise money and Pepsi and Frito-Lay agreed to donate $1 to the cause for every cube (24-pack) of Pepsi products sold and every large bag of Frito-Lay chips. Par Mar Convenience Stores also were donating one penny for every gallon of gasoline pumped at the company’s five Parkersburg locations Monday to the Make-A-Wish Campaign.
”It is a great charity,” Sandra Morgenstern, president of Par Mar, told Newsandsentinel.com. ”It is a wonderful thing that the group does with all of the wishes they are able to grant. It is great to see smiles come to these children’s faces.”
Convenience stores throughout the state make regular contributions to activities and groups within their own communities, said Janet Vineyard, OMEGA president.
”We wanted to do something statewide that can really make a difference,” she said. ”This is our third year with Make-A-Wish.”
OMEGA started annual fundraising efforts for charity in 2003. This year it will reach the $1 million mark in money given back to West Virginia through charity.
“Last year, this campaign raised $190,650 which resulted in more than 60 wishes being granted to children in our state,” Vineyard said. “We hope to do even better this year.”