PORT CLINTON, Ohio — The Ottawa County Community Foundation is spending November collecting the everyday basics that are easiest to overlook and hardest to do without, as its “Bubble Up” personal care drive runs at libraries across Ottawa County and at the foundation’s Port Clinton office. The foundation announced the drive on October 29, seeking new full-size and travel-size items for neighbors struggling as the holidays approach, according to the Ottawa County Community Foundation.
The list of requested items is deliberately practical: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, bar soap, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shaving cream, dish soap, laundry detergent, fabric softener, cleaning products and sanitizer wipes, the foundation said. None of it is glamorous, and that is the point — these are products a household needs every day even when money for food, rent and gifts has run out.
“OCCF is all about helping the people of Ottawa County, in whatever way possible. As the holidays approach, we’re taking a personal, hands-on and tangible approach to assisting individuals in need,” OCCF Vice President and Bubble Up Coordinator Brenda Haas said in the foundation’s announcement. “When someone struggles to put food on the table or a gift under the tree, sometimes the necessities — soap, deodorant, toothpaste — go by the wayside. Our 2026 personal care drive is a simple way to help,” Haas told the Ottawa County Community Foundation.
Donations will not sit in a warehouse. The foundation said many nonprofits from its community grants program will serve as distributors, filtering items to area food pantries, counseling centers, churches, the Family Advocacy Center and other groups for need-based distribution. That network means a bottle of shampoo dropped off in Marblehead or Genoa can reach a family across Ottawa County through an organization that already knows where the need is.
A drive with a history in Ottawa County. Bubble Up is the third countywide collection Haas has coordinated for the foundation, it said. Four years ago, OCCF held a similar coat drive — “Bundle Up” — which provided thousands of pieces of cold-weather gear for Ottawa County students through the school districts. Following an every-other-year pattern, it held its first personal care drive in 2024, again collecting thousands of items. The 2026 drive returns to that focus, timed for the weeks when household budgets are stretched thinnest.
The foundation behind the drive has served Ottawa County since 2003 under the motto “Doing Good. Forever,” supporting the county through grants, scholarships and funds from local families and organizations, according to the foundation. Its work spans education, health and social services, economic development, natural resources and the arts.
Donating is designed to be easy, wherever in the county a donor lives. All Ida Rupp Public Library locations — Port Clinton, Marblehead and Put-in-Bay — accept donations during normal business hours, as do the Harris-Elmore locations in Elmore and Genoa and the Oak Harbor Public Library, the foundation said. “We couldn’t do this without the generosity of our libraries, which will, again, serve as drop-off locations,” Haas said in the foundation’s announcement.
Items and monetary donations are also accepted during open house hours at the OCCF office, 306 Madison Street in Port Clinton, every Wednesday in November from noon to 3 p.m., the foundation said. The first open house was held November 4, with three more on November 11, 18 and 25. Visitors can ask trustees questions, tour the “Little Blue House” office, enjoy light refreshments, or stop next door for the 2 p.m. “Afternoon Story Time” for ages 0 to 5 at the Ida Rupp Public Library, according to the foundation.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the drive runs all November, the items and drop-off locations are set, donations will be distributed on a need basis through food pantries, counseling centers, churches, the Family Advocacy Center and other nonprofits, and questions go to coordinator Brenda Haas at 412-736-0210, the foundation said. What we are still waiting on: how many items Ottawa County will give this year. No running total has been published, and the 2024 benchmark — thousands of items — can only be matched once final donations are counted after November ends. OCCF Executive Director Shea McGrew said in the foundation’s announcement, “We anticipate a tremendous response to ‘Bubble Up,’ because Ottawa County residents and businesses are remarkably generous to their neighbors.”
Ottawa County is not the only place in northwest Ohio where a small, specific donation is being turned into direct help for families this fall. In Toledo, Mom’s House and Harbor have launched the UPSTREAM pilot for Toledo families, and single-need drives have worked elsewhere in Ohio too, as Greene County’s first Spooktacular sock drive showed when it collected 1,292 pairs for kids. Our earlier coverage of the county itself is in our Ottawa County election results report.
What happens next is a month of Wednesdays and library drop-offs. The next open house is Wednesday, November 11, from noon to 3 p.m., and donations can be made at any of the six library locations during normal hours through the end of November. Once the drive closes, the foundation and its partners will sort and distribute what was collected — and the final count, when shared, will show whether this Lake Erie county has outgiven its own 2024 drive.