Volunteers honored for work with prison ministries

Yacolt — Volunteers from Unchained Prison Ministries celebrated another year of work at Larch Corrections in Yacolt last month. The founders of the ministry, Ron and Donna Brandon, have been going into Larch and other prisons regionally for more than 20 years. Members of the team participate in a weekly outreach to Larch Corrections, bringing hope and encouragement to those incarcerated there. The volunteers are Sarah Oancea, Ron Brandon, Donna Schafte-Brandon, Bob Keller, Scott Newman, Tad Winiecki, Nick Bruns, Jeff Plummer and Chris Olson. City Harvest Church sponsors the ministry, which is supervised by Darci Andrews, associate pastor at City Harvest. The church provided dinner for the event, where certificates were presented to each member. Volunteers come from a variety of churches in the community. Lori Bain, manager of the Burgerville branch in Hazel Dell, provided $25 gift certificates to each volunteer.