The Knights of Columbus, DeKalb Council 717, will be presenting $12,500 tonight to local charities and non-profit organizations for the handicapped and mentally retarded.

The money raised in the annual K of C Tootsie Roll Drive from Oct. 23 through 25, will be distributed to Opportunity House, Open Door of Sandwich, DeKalb County Special Education Association, St. Vincent’s Home (Freeport), Camp Mapleleaf, Ben Gordon Mental Health Center, Community Support Services, Volunteer Action Center and NIU Special Physical Education.

“We try to keep the funds within the DeKalb area, but some of them go to nearby cities, like Freeport,” said drive co-chair Marty Layman.

The money is needed to help offset the costs of keeping up these organizations through improvements, purchasing equipment and buying medicines.

“These are non-profit organizations and they rely on donations from other organizations and from the state. The donations do not go to salaries, they go to helping the kids, and hopefully, the funds will go toward hard goods and supplies,” Layman said.

The volunteers came from the K of C and workers and administrators came from various agencies that work with the handicapped.

He said the biggest help came from members of Alpha Phi Omega, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Beta Alpha Psi, Delta Upsilon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Lambda Sigma and Triangle, who collected the money.

“I hope the representatives from the fraternities and sororities will be there. They generated more than 50 percent of the funds,” Layman said. “They really should be a part of the program.”

Knights of Columbus member George Babich said, “They are great kids, they did a lot of hard work and helped us out a lot.”

“My hopes are that if more people see the results of their charity in action, they may be even more generous in the 1993 campaign to help the mentally handicapped and even more, the feeling of charity could get contagious,” Layman said.