County Bank remembers Dorothy Gudger at Grotto

Over the past several years, County Bank has participated in Grotto Pizza’s Annual Parade of Trees and this year is no exception: the local bank is sponsoring trees at the Grotto’s Bethany Beach, Seaford, Lewes Grand Slam and Long Neck locations. But this year the charity that County Bank is supporting at the Long Neck location represents someone very close to many in the Long Neck community.

For 25 years, Grotto Pizza has hosted its Annual Parade of Trees – a tradition of goodwill where sponsors have an opportunity to support local charities that benefit from the donations collected during the event. Sponsors pick a charity and “buy” a tree with an initial donation of $100 which allows them to decorate a tree at a selected location.

Grotto Pizza customers are encouraged to support the various charities by voting for their favorite tree via putting cash donations into designated boxes. Collected donations are donated to each sponsored charity at the end of the event in January, with an additional $250 donated by Grotto Pizza to the tree that collects the most charitable contributions at each location.

County Bank is sponsoring trees for Operation: Whitetail, an organization for wounded veterans, at the Grotto’s Seaford location, Bethel Helping Hands Food Bank at the Bethany location, and Sussex County Cancer Survivor’s Fund at the Lewes Grand Slam location.

But it’s the tree at the Long Neck Grotto Pizza that has touched the local community. The donations for the tree in Long Neck are being collected for the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company Toy Drive in memory of Dorothy Gudger, whose sudden demise was a great shock and a tragic loss to the local community.

The staff of the Georgetown and Long Neck branches of County Bank chose to recognize Dorothy Gudger through selecting the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company’s toy drive initiative as their local charity to support. Gudger was a long-time contributor to the local toys for needy children campaigns in the Oak Orchard-Long Neck communities through County Bank.

“Mrs. Gudger was the epitome of what the spirit of Christmas is about,” said Pam Shockley, teller at the County Bank Long Neck Branch. “For as long as I can remember, she always made sure kids had gifts to open on Christmas by donating to the fire company toy drive. Her kindness, gentle and giving spirit, and love of all people were blessings to all of us. Dottie has instilled that same spirit into her grandchildren, who now carry on her legacy of donating toys to the fire company toy drive campaign. We just felt that it was important to remember and honor Dottie at this time.”

Donations collected at the Grotto Long Neck location for County Bank’s tree will be given to the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company in honor of Gudger so that the firemen can continue Gudger’s acts of generosity through contributions of toys for needy children in the local communities.

The Grotto Pizza 25th Annual Parade of Trees continues through Sunday, Jan. 1. “We encourage everyone to stop in at any of the participating Grotto locations and take part in this wonderful tradition,” said Shockley. “There are so many great and deserving charities being sponsored and some beautifully decorated trees too. But,” adds Shockley with a smile, “you can probably guess which tree is my favorite!”

For more information on the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company, go to www.irvfc.com.