The annual Christmas Basket Fund finished on Christmas Eve at $11,229.15 with a donation of $22.65 from Tim Perry’s fourth block speech class at Seymour High School.

The total was $1,898.85 lower than the $13,128 donated in 2017 but $157.15 higher than the 2016 total of $11,072. The fund set a record of $20,130 in 2011.

The 73-year-old project, sponsored by American Legion Post 89 in Seymour, The Tribune and JCB, provides $50 Jay C Food Stores gift cards for distribution to less-fortunate people in the area whose applications are approved.

The fund was started in 1945 by veterans returning home to Seymour and Jackson County from World War II to provide food for area families at Christmas.