Copyright Times Publishing Co. Nov 26, 2002

The St Pete Times

(ran SS edition of METRO & STATE)

Last year two Largo girls set out to raise $500 for the Religious Community Services Food Pantry in Clearwater. But when Katherine and Margo Sultenfuss were done, they shocked themselves and RCS marketing director Stephany Dawson with their success.

"When two teenagers come and say we want to do something, you don't expect them to raise $14,000," Dawson said. "When the money started coming in, I was just floored."

This year, they're setting their sights even higher. They plan to raise $25,000, and they've recruited three volunteers to help them.

Dawson said RCS donations are lagging while the facility is feeding almost twice as many people as last year.

Donations to RCS, which provides a variety of services besides the pantry, are down about $25,000, Dawson said. From October 2000 to September 2001, the pantry fed 8,649 people. And from October 2001 to September 2002 it served 15,867.

The Sultenfuss' project began as a family affair. A year ago, Dr. Thomas Sultenfuss, his wife, Sherry, and the girls were at Church of the Sea when they heard the pantry director Jamia Austin say that the facility had seen a drop in donations. Together, they decided to do a mass mailing to ask 500 local physicians to purchase holiday greeting cards to benefit the pantry rather than spend the money on traditional holiday gifts.

Mrs. Sultenfuss said she and her husband still supervise the project, but that her daughters have taken the reins.

"It's been a great learning experience," she said. "They run this like a small business."

This year, Katherine, 15, and Margo, 12, have beefed up their campaign The group is also asking some businesses to pledge $100 to $5,000 to match funds raised by the holiday card campaign. So far, they've received a commitment for $10,000. Ten percent of these funds will go to a startup fund for next year's Gift of Food campaign.

Wrangling up matching funds has been one of volunteer Timothy Magidson's key jobs.

"It's neat when you see people's faces when they know it's not for you and stuff. When they find out it was for the community, they kind of opened up a little bit," the 12-year-old said.

Timothy said that venturing out into the community has boosted his self-esteem.

"It kind of gives you more confidence in just what you do in daily life," he said.

Livi Ayers is in charge of the education campaign, which will teach people about RCS pantry and recruit volunteers.

Ellie Thomas 15, heads publicity. Ellie, who joined to bond with her buddy Katherine, said she got a crash course in writing press releases from Dawson.

Before joining up, Ellie said, she knew there were problems in big cities, but didn't know that so many local people were going hungry. "I never realized how much the community needed people to give back," she said.

- Lorri Helfand can be reached at (727) 445-4155 or at lorri@sptimes.com.

How to help To help, send checks payable to RCS Food Pantry to: The Gift of Food c/o Dr. Sultenfuss 1022 Main St., Suite R Dunedin, FL 34698 For information, call the Sultenfuss family at (727) 586-6267.