By Mandy McFarland Editor
NAPPANEE — Normally functioning as a food pantry, Open Door in Nappanee has received a gift that will help them clothe a few local families this winter.
When Tom Stout, president and owner of Burston Marketing in Elkhart, saw a photo of an Elkhart County family that lost their home because of recent economic circumstances, he decided to do something for the locally unemployed.

The company had several boxes of brand new clothing items that were planned for promotional purposes but were not used. These included but were not limited to fleece jackets, sweatshirts, button-down shirts, parkas and more in a variety of men's, women's and children's sizes. Instead of keeping the items for next year, Stout decided to give them to Open Door.
"We just wanted to help people who are out of work and we had a lot of merchandise," he said.
Stout's local contact was Bobbi Wilson, who told him about Open Door.
Open Door D-irector Hank Whelan looks forward to providing this additional service to the community this fall, though it is difficult to estimate how great the need will be.
"We'll just have to see, try to give them whatever their needs are," Whelan said. "We don't want to give it away to three or four people. We're going to have to divide it up."
According to Stout, Nappanee is the only city to receive a donation from the company.
"We can't thank them enough," Nappanee Mayor Larry Thompson said.
Aside from the food pantry, Open Door also provides assistance with utilities for those who cannot make payments on their own.
'Economic tornado'
Many are terming the recent economic situation the "economic tornado," a name inspired by the level F3 tornado that ripped through parts of northern Indiana last year. A committee is forming and will function similar to NITRO (Northern Indiana Tornado Recovery Operations), which handled individual case management, hosted classes and seminars and set up a fund to help with last year's tornado cleanup and recovery.