The dust has settled and the coins have fallen into their slots. The final tally is in for CenturyLink’s 2016 Backpack Buddies Food Drive and NNEMAP made off with quite a haul.

For every dollar donated through the Backpack Buddies website between June 6 and 17, the CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation pledged to match 75 percent. We were hoping to rope in about 10 grand. A tidy sum when coupled with a $7,500 match.

Well, we failed in our bid to secure $10,ooo in donations…but we far exceeded our goal. Howzawha?!? Yep–it’s true. Nationwide, donations through the fund drive came in at about $700,000. True to their word, the good people at the Clarke M. Williams Foundation distributed matching funds totaling a cool million.

A total of 28 donors gave NNEMAP $5,507 through the website. Forget the 75 percent matching funds. CenturyLink nearly quadrupled that total. As a result of this spectacular display of philanthropic largesse, NNEMAP got a whopping $20,358.77!

NNEMAP was far and away the leading recipient among Ohio charities and cracked the top 20 nationwide. We could not have done it without YOUR support. So THANK YOU to all of our generous donors for leading the way. Your exemplary response to this unique fund drive will put food on thousands of plates in the months to come!