Aberdeen Humanitarian Fair promotes communities coming together

The city of Aberdeen hosted its 4th Annual Humanitarian Fair Tuesday evening, helping five community agencies by gathering needed donations.

Coordinator Cheryl Koompin said the fair gets bigger every year, both in the number of people who attend and the number of donations received. Donations Tuesday included quilts, non-perishable food and money, going to a variety of places.

Those places include the Aberdeen branch of the Idaho Foodbank, which they say helps about 300 Aberdeen residents, as well as the Dialysis Centers in Pocatello and Blackfoot, the Blackfoot State Hospital, the Bingham Crisis Center and a fundraiser to put in a playground at Posse Park.

Koompin said the fair started with area churches donating their time and cooking soups while competing for a prize.

“This year we decided we wanted to expand the involvement of the actual involvement,” Koompin said. “Not just participation, we wanted actual involvement.”

So the area churches cooked soups and so did several local business. Eight soups in total were made, with Simplot Soil Builders taking the top prize, voted on by the fair-goers. Any funds from raffle tickets were also split between the Aberdeen Boots and Saddle Club and the other organizations.

“They care about each other,” said Dulce Phillips, Bingham Crisis Center Spanish Coordinator. “The main thing I see in them is how they love each other and how they want to reach out to others, especially those that are in need.”

Koompin said she sees that too, which is why she gets a little choked up thinking about all these people wanting to help their community.

“We try to take care of the people here, and we try to see to the needs of our community, so that will help us be a closer community,” Koompin said. “We just want it to be a better community.”

She said she hopes in the future other area cities will attend the fair, growing the outreach and the donations for the area groups in need.

Chris Cole on Facebook (http://on.fb.me/126vPsW) and on Twitter (http://bit.ly/126vO8n).