A season of giving

I think it’s fitting that we start the holiday season off with a day when we express what we are most thankful for. In many families it’s a tradition to go around the Thanksgiving table and share those thoughts with each other.

Unfortunately, this is also the time of year when it becomes painfully obvious that there are many people who are in need. There are local families who struggle all year to make ends meet. But the contrast seems to be so much greater during the holiday season when the pressure is on to try and do more than “get by.”

While many of us were off taking advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, there were parents concerned with where they’d get money for school lunch this week or a turkey on Christmas day.

Last summer I visited Second Harvest, the food bank that serves many of the local food pantries. One of the things that struck me is that the food bank receives 80 percent of its monetary donations during the last quarter of the year.

Going into the holiday season and just prior to tax time many people budget for charitable giving. Food pantries, churches and soup kitchens try to provide families with baskets filled with all the trimmings for a festive holiday meal. Some even include gifts for the children in the home and maybe some mittens and a scarf as well.

But what about the rest of the year? What about those long summer days when there is no free lunch at school and the shelves at the food banks are bare?

And it’s not just the struggle with hunger; the animal shelters, veterans’ homes, homeless shelters and domestic abuse services are all working hard to carry out their mission all year long.

When I think of the holidays I have such wonderful memories of growing up and celebrating with my family, even on those years when we had way more love than money.

I have always loved the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It takes me back to my sister and me doing the dinner dishes on Christmas night and singing every Christmas song off the back of our “Little Drummer Boy” album. Her, in tune, me out of tune, but we did it every year without fail.

This coming year I have decided to celebrate the Twelve Months of Christmas.

Now don’t get me wrong. I will not be writing 12 checks, that’s for sure. But there are so many different ways in which we can be giving of ourselves.

So during 2018 I will find one group, charity or organization that I can help each month. By being a volunteer or by donating something that is needed.

If you are interested in lending a helping hand there are way more than 12 places where you can volunteer in our area.

• Try unloading a delivery truck and stocking shelves at your local food pantry. How about walking, feeding or cleaning up after dogs at the local animal shelter. You can answer phones or provide office help at a shelter, drive a veteran to a therapy session, transport a cancer patient to treatment or take them to the grocery store or pharmacy.

• How about volunteering at your local fire company. Too physical for you? How about helping with fundraising, bingo or a monthly breakfast.

• If you want to make a donation, but don’t have a lot of money, you can donate gently used, work attire to a shelter or organization that helps people get back on their feet and find jobs to help support themselves. A nice, in-style purse or suit jacket might help to ease some of the anxiety that comes with that first day on a new job.

Not everyone has money lying around to donate, but everyone has a few spare minutes, even if it is stuffing envelopes for an annual appeal.

There is always something that you can do.

There are so many benefits to giving and to being a volunteer. One is the example you set for your children.

When my kids were little we would always make up a plate of Christmas cookies for each of their teachers on the last day of school before the holiday break. We would always make up one extra plate for the principal to send home with a child whose family they knew would appreciate them. That was always the plate that the kids wanted to carry in, because that was the most important one.

Children learn from the examples we set for them. The children who benefit from your charity learn an important lesson as well.

There are so many worthy organizations in our area that could benefit from all of our generosity in 2018.

So maybe you would like to join me in making 2018 and the Twelve Months of Christmas a success. And to everyone in our coverage area, have a healthy, happy and safe holiday season and a wondrous new year.