By Zach Dietmeier

BLOOMINGTON - The Clare House is down to the wire in its annual holiday food drive with WJBC's sister-station B-104.

With two days left in the collection, Dan O'Brien of Extreme Motors and 110 volunteers helped pack and arrange food in the storage warehouse on Monday.

"It was heartwarming having everyone help out, and I'm sure everyone was tired at the end of the evening but it was well, well worth it," said O'Brien. "We have two days, today and tomorrow, so we still have an awful lot of time to gather food."

Clare House founder Tina Sipula said the need is greater than ever for the 18th annual drive.

"Our lines are bigger than they've ever been," said Sipula. "Last Wednesday, we ran out of food and bags, and we expect a huge amount of people tomorrow. We're just trying to be prepared for that."

Both Sipula and O'Brien agree that help can be simple yet effective.

"We know we have some food coming in from organizations," said O'Brien. "If everyone who is out shopping, which everybody is right now, if you can just pick an extra can or two it would really help. It really would."

"We're not asking you to bring 3,000 canned goods, just one," said Sipula. "If everybody from now until tomorrow morning brought one canned good, we would far surpass our goal."

Food can still be dropped off at Schnucks and any one of Extreme Motors - on Greenbriar Dr. in Normal, south Morrissey in Bloomington or on Ireland Grove Road. Schnucks has prepared food packages that can be purchased for $5, $10 or $15.

Zach Dietmeier can be reached at zach.dietmeier@cumulus.com.