KINDNESS HAPPENS ALL the TIME
http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20111228/LIFESTYLE/112280322
10:00 PM, Dec. 27, 2011 | Comments
There were many moments during this holiday season that I was reminded why I love living in Southern Utah so much. People here are so generous, often sacrificing some of their wants and needs to help those whose needs are greater than their own.
For example, when the Dixie Care and Share faced closure, donors stepped in to keep their doors open. From cash donations to a Christmas benefit CD, to Westates Theatres' "A Merry Movie Christmas" and more, people stepped up to say, "We care and we're willing to help."
Just before Christmas, Coins for Kids was facing a large shortage in funds to help provide clothing and toys to needy children and families. Within hours of when shopping was to begin, organizers made their goal of $125,000.
The Elks donated food baskets to help more than 150 residents in need. An Erin Kimball Memorial Foundation "Toys For Tats" event raised more than $850 in toys and cash donations. Xotic Motorsports and other local business owners donated 48 new bicycles to children. Mystery donors paid off layaways at K-Mart.
Approximately 4,000 children were in need this Christmas season, and through organizations like Toys for Tots, Coins for Kids, the Salvation Army and Dixie Care and Share, along with the generosity of our community, more than 11,000 toys were given to make sure they received something for Christmas.
That's just a few of the highlights.
The Spectrum also recently received a donation for St. George Musical Theater that was delivered to our office. The donation was small - only $1 - but, as is often the case, every dollar helps. If every person were to donate $1 to charity, there is so much that could be done.
Then there's the family who received the keys to their Habitat for Humanity remodeled and renovated home just before Christmas and the soldiers who returned home to their families for the holidays.
Who says good news doesn't ever make it into the newspaper?
That's not even counting the hundreds - if not thousands - of hours neighbors spent in creating homemade goodies and gifts for their neighbors, family and friends, or the thousands of other random acts of kindness that occur when most of us aren't looking.
"If only this holiday spirit could last all year," you may be thinking to yourself right about now.
I think it does, if we choose to look for it or to act ourselves.
Perhaps we're more in tune to notice those acts of kindness, or more willing ourselves to open our pocketbooks or donate our time during the holidays. However, among those people I admire the most, are the people who spend their time giving throughout the year.
It's the volunteers at the hospital who go each week without fail. It's the people who text to a certain number to add $10 to their bill in aid when a natural disaster strikes. It's the readers who contact us regularly when we run a heartbreaking story in the newspaper and want to help in some way.
Kindness happens all the time in Southern Utah. We just have to look for it.
Rachel Barney is the specialty publications editor for The Spectrum & Daily News and can be contacted at rbarney@thespectrum.com. She and Angela Etter, a retired news editor, take turns each week to share thoughts on whatever strikes their fancy.
http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20111228/LIFESTYLE/112280322
