•March 23, 2016•

By Nick Fiala
For The News Progress

A non-profit organization called Christian Aid Ministries, or CAM, has a small operating branch right here in Sullivan.

Ray Miller, a Mennonite from the community of Bourbon, has been assisting with the donations for the past five years. He voluntarily picks up donated or overstocked clothes from thrift stores and churches in the county and drives them out to a collection building rented out by CAM, near Arthur, where they are packaged and eventually shipped overseas.

“I donate my time picking them up,” Miller said. “It’s a really unique deal. Everybody’s doing a little something to help somebody.”

CAM, which is based out of Ohio, orders large containers from a third party company that go to each collection site across the country. The process for transporting the clothes is very thorough.

At the rural Arthur collection facility various church groups gather in shifts to sort through the mountains of donated clothing. For three months volunteers sort, clean repair and prepare the clothing for bales that are shipped overseas.

But since 1981, volunteers have been running it as a well-oiled machine, turning out two large containers per group, to be carried overseas on a barge every year by March. In fact, Miller’s group has already finished their first one this year, and they’re well on their way to finishing the second.      Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.