We would like to thank the citizens of Bloomington/Normal and the surrounding area. The generosity of the people of our community never ceases to amaze us.

We were concerned about the economic situation that everyone is dealing with and how it would affect the fundraising efforts of Tootsie Roll weekend. We were concerned enough that we lowered our goal to $12,000, more than a $1,000 less than last year's total.

We are very happy that we can report that this community did not let us down, we have raised $13,000.

We want to remind everyone that this money is raised by volunteers and the money after our expenses stays in the community. We donate it to special education programs in the local schools and to such organizations as SOAR, Illinois Special Olympics, Best Buddies, Big Brother/Big Sister and SPEC. Our expenses, for the Tootsie Rolls, insurance, postage and a little advertising is about 10 per cent of the funds raised.

We also want to thank all the wonderful volunteers who helped make this a success. Again we thank you for helping the special people of our community.

Dennis Fries, Bloomington

Vic Raimondi, Normal

The writers are chairmen, Bloomington Knights of Columbus Tootsie Roll Drive.