Tamaqua Middle School Council is one of the award winners in the 2010 Make A Difference Day announced at the public meeting of the Schuylkill County Commissioners held Wednesday at the courthouse in Pottsville.

The council has participated since 1999 in the County Collectibles campaign to donate canned food items to five Human Service agencies and to the 18 food pantries in the county. They had won the awards in Special Commendations from the county commissioners and a Certificate of Special Recognition from Congressman Tim Holden in 1999, 2002 and 2005.Others who were awarded the Special Commendation were as follows:· Lavelle Church of the Nazarene collected 116 knitted hats for cancer patients and made 100 hug-a-bears for emergency responders to soothe distressed children.· Mahanoy City Knitting Group knitted 100 hats for four kindergarten children.· Schuylkill Quilters Guild made 76 quilts for returning military, made 200 stockings and bought gifts for children of military overseas, shipped 26 boxes of supplies to military, made 150 ornaments for Roeder's Post's Christmas party and presented them with a check for $900 to pay for the party.· Service, Access and Management Inc., hosted a dog walk, Chinese Auction, face painting yard sale, food sale, supply drop off and a 50/50 raffle with a $2,345 donation and two truckloads of supplies for Hillside SPCA, Pottsville.· Seton Manor raffled theme baskets and local business certificates, had a bake sale, collected canned food items and all proceeds of $1,106 and over 1,000 pounds of food were donated to the Orwigsburg Food Pantry.· Saint Clair Medical Center, Fountain Springs, Butler Township, participated in RSVP's A Sock it to US campaign and collected 106 pairs of socks and used dress down proceeds of $327 to purchase additional socks for a total of 416 pairs of sock for nonprofit consumers.· Saint John's Lutheran Sunday School, Ringtown, set up a hospitality station with a safe viewing area and hot chocolate for the town's trick or treat night.· Word of Life Baptist Church, Pottsville, distributed 23 gift baskets to homebound elderly, cancer patients and other ill patients and two fire victim families.Three county elementary schools were named the 2010 Make A Difference Day Above and Beyond Commendation Award winners for excellence:· Blue Mountain Elementary Center at Cressona, Blue Mountain Elementary Center West and Schuylkill Haven Elementary Center held a 'food fight" challenge for food donations for the Schuylkill Haven Food Pantry. Approximately 7,000 items were collected. Schuylkill Haven won and a Blue Mountain teacher and Principal Heath Renninger were "pied" as the losers of the challenge.Janice Johnson, director of the Make A Difference Project, told the commissioners this year 19,000 people participated in the program, more than last year, which equated as one for every 15 people in the county.The commendations will be presented to the recipients at an award reception on Jan. 19, 2011, with the host location to be announced. In addition to the commendations, recipients will also receive certificates of special recognition from Congressman Holden.