CRANBERRY TWP — The Cranberry Township Community Chest’s Project of the Year, centering on firefighter recruitment and retention, collected donations during the recent Community Days festival.

Four organizations collected donations for parking at the event. All that money is for the project.

The Cranberry Lions Club collected $4,011, the Cranberry Noon Rotary Club collected $4,321, the Cranberry Sunrise Rotary Club collected $3,017 and Grace Community Church collected $4,336.

The project also received donations of $5,000 from the Butler County Convention and Tourism Bureau, $750 from the Cranberry Sunrise Rotary Club, and $50 from Butler County Commissioner Jim Eckstein.

In addition to money already collected from the county commissioners and the Alcoa Foundation, the project’s total is more than $171,000.

Bruce Mazzoni, chairman of the township supervisors and the Community Chest secretary, said he is pleased with the community’s support.

Volunteers are preparing marketing materials to seek donations from residents and businesses this fall.

With the contributions already collected and some anticipated donations, project organizers hope to raise $250,000 by mid-August, halfway to the final goal of $500,000

“I feel very good about the project. Not only will we raise $500,000 but hopefully also go over it,” Mazzoni said.

About $130,000 of that amount from the county will buy a new fire training trailer as an educational and recruitment tool for all the fire departments in the county.

The rest of the money will be used to fund scholarships at Butler County Community College for students who agree to take a firefighter certification course and to volunteer for two years with a fire department in the county.

The Butler Eagle and the Cranberry Eagle are co-sponsors of the 2015 Project of the year.