Photo by Mike Brothers
Above Joe Ellis and David Cornwell load the box crusher, preparing cardboard collected from area businesses for recycling. At right Executive Director Susan Rauch checks photo display strip which helps consumers with autism deal with schedule changes.

•April 6, 2016•

By Mike Brothers

The Moultrie County Beacon’s annual benefit auction at the Otto Center in Arthur April 15 is more than a place to get the best fried pies and donuts anywhere; it has become a financial lifeline for the local non-profit agency.

Located in Sullivan the Beacon is a community-based not for profit, offering a wide range of services to the developmentally disabled and mentally ill residents of the area.

“We were resistant to outside fund-raising until the state got three months behind on funding,” executive director Susan Rauch said of the decision to follow up on a suggestion from board member Dannie Kuhns that the Beacon approach the Otto Center about a benefit.

Since that time, state funding reached a crisis for community agencies when the state failed to come up with a budget. That lack of funding for programs to help people who need it the most has forced the Beacon to focus as much on fund- raising and training just to maintain existing services.

David Kaufman of the Otto Center was not eager to help a Moultrie County agency since he was in Douglas County, but Rauch encouraged him to tour the Beacon facility in Sullivan.

“Once he saw the services we provide at the Beacon he agreed, and that brought a host of help from the Amish community which has been essential to the success of the annual benefit,” she continued.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.