New locations, same good cause for this year's Fire and Ice food drive

The popular food-drive event Fire and Ice will take place at two new locations on Saturday, Dec. 12, to accommodate COVID-19 concerns.

Participants will experience the luminary display from their cars as they drive through a parking lot at either of two locations: Wolf Run Regional Park or Millwood Church of Christ. Knox County Park District employees and congregational volunteers will be on hand to collect donations for Food For The Hungry directly from cars between 5-8 p.m. at both locations.

In previous years, Honey Run Waterfall Park hosted the event. Participants walked luminary-lined park trails and dropped off donations. Last year’s event attracted 1,800 people. To keep participants safe, Knox County Park District officials felt it best to change the event from a walking to a driving experience.

“The trails are very narrow there,” Lori Totman, director of Knox County Park District, told the Mount Vernon News. “We’re talking in some places about four feet across, so when you have people walking to and from the waterfall and to and from the river, there’s absolutely no way we can keep them social distanced.”

This is the second year Millwood Church of Christ is participating, and they will use their new parking lot for the second location.

“Because we couldn’t go to the waterfall this year, Lori Totman and myself talked and she had the idea that we could use the luminaries to still tie in to the Fire and Ice event at the waterfall,” Millwood Pastor Dave Jones told the News. “It would still be reminiscent of what goes on at the waterfall and still do what really the main function of Fire and Ice is; and that’s to collect canned goods, food and cash donations for Food For The Hungry.”

This year, there may be no icy waterfall, but 600 luminaries will still light up the night and symbolize the hope that donations offer to those in need.

“Will we miss having it at the Honey Run Waterfall this year?” Totman said. “Absolutely, because it is spectacular at the waterfall. But meeting with the pastor at Millwood Church of Christ and talking with Lisa Mazzari, Food For The Hungry coordinator, I feel like we’ve come up with the best alternative that we could come up with this year.”