As members of First Presbyterian Church of Ironton enjoyed a special cake after this morning’s church service, they also marked another example of their outreach to the community.

“We have been keeping track of the amount of money received from recycling at Rumpke with newspapers, office paper, cans,” the Rev. Jan Williams, pastor of First Presbyterian, said. “Every thousand dollars we raise there is a good friend who brings a cake and we celebrate with that.”

Today’s celebration marked $10,000 the church has gotten from recycling that has gone to mission work. Beneficiaries of the congregation’s efforts have been the Ironton City Welfare Mission, Harvest for the Hungry, the food pantry of the downtown churches, and Marion Medical Mission.

“The main thing with Marion is to build wells in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Williams said. “It takes $400 to build a well. This church over the years has built, I don’t know how many, wells. The infant and child mortality goes down as soon as these wells go in. They save people from disease. It has a huge impact on a community.”

As the church’s recycling efforts became known, people outside the congregation would join in.

“They would save up their cardboard and newspapers and people would bring them to the front door of the church, piles of newspaper,” Williams said. “It kept this junk out of the landfill and provided money for missions.”