Earlier this summer, Ron Carper was watching the news and he saw something that inspired him to take action. "Somebody had asked a question, 'What can you do to help your community with gas prices being so high?'" he recalled. "One of the ideas someone suggested was to help out your local volunteer firemen. I noticed in the news that a lot of communities are doing this."

Carper, who is a member of the Rotary Club of Mount Joy, decided to spearhead a gas gift card collection for Fire Department Mount Joy.

"I talked to the chief at the fire department, and I realized that with the number of volunteers they had and the funds our club had, we couldn't do much by ourselves," Carper said. So, he reached out to two other civic organizations - the Kiwanis Club of Norlanco-Rheems and the Mount Joy Lions Club - and asked if the groups would like to participate as well. "They were interested immediately," Carper recalled, noting that Kiwanis member John Gish, Lion Harry Goehring and Rotarian Chris Silvestri also helped coordinate the project.

All three groups pooled resources from their fundraising efforts throughout the year, and on Aug. 11, they presented a $50 gas gift card to each of the 45 members of Fire Department Mount Joy. Although the chief knew about the presentation, it was a surprise to the other volunteers. "They were really excited and very thankful," Carper noted. "These guys are giving their time and money to do what they do to serve our community, and this was a nice way to give back to them."

Carper said the Rotary Club of Mount Joy has worked with the other civic groups on projects in the past, and this most recent effort has motivated him to continue to collaborate. "We can help each other out," he stated. "We can do more all together, working together, than we can by ourselves."