SIDNEY — Christina Ryan Claypool, of Troy, will be the guest speaker at a fundraising buffet dinner in support of Samaritan Works Inc., June 24, at 5 p.m., in the Connection Point Church of God, 1510 Campbell Road.

Claypool is an award-winning, freelance journalist and regular contributor to the Sidney Daily News. She is a past $10,000 first place Amy Writing Award-winner and a two-time “Chicken Soup for the Soul” contributor. She has been featured on Joyce Meyer’s “Enjoying Everyday Life” and CBN-TV’s “700 Club” television shows. In 2014, she won an Ohio Associated Press Media Editors award as a columnist.

Claypool is a former television producer, reporter and host and the author of several books, including “Seeds of Hope for Survivors: For Everyone Who Has Been Brokenhearted, Addicted or a Victim.” The book chronicles her own suicide attempt and confinement in a state mental institution as a teenager, as well as her battle with addiction.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Bluffton University and a Master of Arts in ministry from Mount Vernon Nazarene University.