Oddities left as donations at Light Up Middletown

Gum wrapper, game tokens, refried beans among donations.

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer Updated 8:26 AM Tuesday, January 5, 2010

MIDDLETOWN — Most people who attend Light Up Middletown donate cash, but every year sees its share of unusual items left in the donations box, some of them more practical than others.

According to a report from Ann Mort, the publicist for the event, food was especially popular. There were two cans of tuna, one can of SeaLife Fortables, one can of mixed vegetables, one can of green beans, one can of cream of mushroom soup, one can of Manwich sloppy joe topping, one can of corn, three cans of peas, two cans of mandarin oranges, one can of sliced carrots, one can of refried beans and one can of vegetarian beans.

Light Up Middletown isn’t set up to receive food donations, but when it gets them, “we see that the food gets a good home. It goes to someone who needs it,” Mort said, such as a food pantry or a specific family in need.

Other donations weren’t quite so edible. These included a piece of tree bark, one electrical tie, one piece of plastic, a piece of metal and one gum wrapper.

Also donated was a Field of Dreams token, three Pocket Change tokens, two car wash tokens, one Dayton RTA bus token, one Strike Zone token and three unknown tokens.

Some of the items were useful, but only to their owners, such as one set of keys to a lock, one watch battery and a screw.

There also were two notes, one of which was polite, while the other was not. There was a thank-you note from Community Concepts, an Ohio Group Home, and there was one “poorly spelled obscene note.”

Also found were a coupon for Scope, a coupon for Advil, a Family Dollar receipt, one pop top, an Iraqi Freedom 2003 pin, three religious pamphlets and one Speedway receipt for $38 in gas.

Finally, there was one donation that was a cash donation, but of a foreign kind. It was a a 200 peso coin, which equals 20 cents in American money.

It’s not at all uncommon for items like these to be found, Mort said. Sometimes there are even valuable items like “pretty rings and such – we managed to get those back to their owners,” she said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.

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