CRANBERRY TWP — The Cranberry Township Community Chest this past week received $1,525 in donations for the 2015 Project of the Year.

That brought the total amount raised since last summer to $354,277.

The project of the year is a $500,000 initiative aimed at recruiting and retaining more volunteer firefighters in Butler County.

The Community Chest will buy two emergency trailers for a total of $150,000. They will be used for education and training throughout the county by all fire departments.

The rest of the money will go to establishing about 20 scholarships at the Butler County Community College. Anyone who pledges two years of service to a volunteer fire department will be eligible for a scholarship.

The most recent round of donations includes a $1,000 gift from the Pittsburgh North Regional Chamber of Commerce; $100 from Dairy Queen of Cranberry, M. Agnes Peebles and Ruth Teslik; and $25 from Guy Ruwe, Melinda Terbosic, Geneva Kimbro, Patricia Wyman and Mary Cox.

Bruce Mazzoni, treasurer of the Community Chest, said his group is receiving positive feedback from tens of thousands of fliers sent out to residents and businesses.

While the project of the year is more than six months old, Mazzoni knows there are still people who haven’t heard about it.

But he is pleased with the community’s response to the project.

“We’re all happy with the interest level of the public,” Mazzoni said. “I feel confident we’re going to have a successful project.”

Anyone interested in learning about the project or who wants to donate can visit the Community Chest’s website at www.ctcchest.org.