From the Stuhr Museum:

The “Sharing Through The Season” canned food drive which squares off the Hastings Museum and Stuhr Museum to see which can raise the most donated food during the holidays began last week and the first results are in.

Hastings Museum is off to a fast start, having raised 487 pounds of food to Stuhr Museum’s 173 pounds. The competition, which began in late November, runs through the end of December. All the food raised goes to local food pantries.

Last year, the “Sharing Through the Season” drive raised over two tons of food for The Food Pantry in Hastings and the Salvation Army Food Pantry in Grand Island.

Both museums are interested in helping their respective communities during the holidays and by challenging each other, hope to motivate the community to lend a helping hand during the last few weeks of 2010.

The “Sharing Through the Season” drive coincides with two big events at each museum: Hastings Museum’s 28th Annual Festival of Trees running through January 1 and Stuhr Museum’s Christmas Past and Present events, Dec. 4, 10, 11 & 12. Both events draw thousands of local residents to the museums, and the hope is each person will bring a food item with them.

Food donations to Stuhr Museum can be taken to the Stuhr Building from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday and put in the sleigh outside the Stuhr Building.

Food donated to the Hastings Museum can be dropped off 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information on the “Sharing Through the Season” food drive, please contact Hastings Museum Marketing Director Drew Ceperley at (800) 508-4629 or via e-mail at dceperley@hastingsmuseum.org, or Stuhr Museum Marketing Director Mike Bockoven at (308) 385-5316 ext. 208 or via e-mail at marketing@stuhrmuseum.org.

Help these two museums make a difference for thousands of people this holiday season!