In the spirit of the season, Edwardsburg’s Cressy and Everett is holding a celebration that will also be a way of giving back to the community.

The longtime Edwardsburg Realtors will hold an open house and food drive to benefit the Edwardsburg Food Bank Friday from 3 to 8 p.m. at their location off U.S. Highway 12 in Edwardsburg, across from Lunker’s.

“It started out in a conversation,” agent Gary Sanders said. “We wanted to have an open house for our office.”

Cressy and Everett moved to its current building two years ago. Sanders said agents wanted to have an open house to give people a chance to look at the new building.

“But we thought well, we can’t just have an open house,” he said. “We need to have a purpose.”

The decision was made to ask those visitors to bring in non-perishable food items to benefit the Edwardsburg Food Bank.

This is the first time the agency has organized its own food drive. Sanders said if they are successful the hope is to continue to hold the event each year.

“All of us are sending out flyers to our past customers and clients,” he said. The idea, he added, was the group of an estimated 10 agents who use the Edwardsburg office “just want to make ourselves welcome in the community, and giving back to the community seems like a good way to do it.”

(Editor’s note: The incorrect date was printed in last week’s Argus. The food drive is Friday, not Tuesday. The Argus regrets the error. )