Longboat bell ringers tops again

Club raises more than $15,000.

By Eric Garwood
| 8:41 a.m. January 22, 2018

Jane Boehme takes a turn ringing the bell at the Kiwanis Club's holiday-season kettle drive for the Salvation Army.

Longboat Key
Neighbors

Longboat Key's Kiwanis Club again collected more donations in its holiday-season kettle drive for the Salvation Army than any other civic group in the Sarasota-Manatee county area.

The drive, which started the day after Thanksgiving and ran through the afternoon of Christmas Eve at the Bay Isles Publix, raised $15,291.63. For about a decade, the club has been the Salvation Army's top kettle-drive producer. In 2016, the club raised $14,037.43.

Club members, members of other organizations, town officials and other volunteers filled a schedule that consisted of 217 shifts that each spanned an hour and 15 minutes. Kiwanis member Reg Ware coordinated the drive.