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MERRY HILL – Ashland Global, formally Avoca Inc., recently donated $10,000 to the Merry Hill / Midway Volunteer Fire Department to assist with their overall operations.

Merry Hill / Midway Fire Chief Jodey Sary said his department sent out a solicitation letter in February to everyone who is a registered property owner in the fire district asking for donations.

Sary noted that Merry Hill / Midway Volunteer Fire Department runs the third most calls of the 12 fire departments in Bertie County.

“That puts us running the most calls for a department that is not funded by a municipality,” Sary said, adding that the Merry Hill / Midway volunteers rely on funding from the county as well as donations in an effort to remain operational.

“To date, we have received $30,000 including this check from Ashland,” Sary said. “When we sent out this letter I was expecting $5,000 to $6,000 in return. I still can’t believe we have raised this much. It really shows how much the community supports us. We obviously had this $10,000 check but we had a lot of people send in money, lots of $20 and $50 checks. We can’t thank Ashland Global as well each person who donated to us enough.”