SIDNEY — Five Ohio locations of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken of Ohio Miami Valley stores — Sidney, Springfield, Piqua, New Carlisle and Bellefontaine —donated $24,456 to the Salvation Army’s Red Paper Kettle Drive.

Restaurant team members asked customers in the participating locations to purchase paper kettles, representing donations to the campaign, and display them during the holidays.

Scott Griffith, who has served as past chair and is a current member of the Salvation Army’s Advisory Board, said he and his wife, Kim, who co-own seven Lee’s locations in five cities (three restaurants in Springfield, and one each in New Carlile, Piqua, Sidney, and Bellefontaine) have been supporting the Salvation Army for many years, and that they were once again motivated by customers’ and team members’ generosity to make a donation for each location.

“This opportunity made it easy for our loyal customers to support the important work of the Salvation Army in local communities. We applaud the Salvation Army’s mission and hope these funds allow the organization to do even greater things in 2022,” said Griffith. “Love has an army — and many of its members are Lee’s customers.”

“The Salvation Army is organized with a Corps operation in each county, so our donations go to the Corps headquarters in Clark, Miami, Shelby, and Logan counties,” Griffith said. The Clark County Salvation Army received $14,886, the Logan County unit received $3,550, Miami County unit (Piqua) $5,092, and Shelby County unit (Sidney) $2,928.

For more than 55 years Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, a casual dining franchise founded in Lima, Ohio, has specialized in fresh, never frozen chicken. Today, there are 131 locations in 12 U.S. states and in Canada that are all individually owned and operated.