Sharing at Christmas shows giving nature of community

Every year, we worry about raising enough money as contributions seem to only trickle in until the last minute. There is a discussion about how much food we can afford to include and if enough appropriate toys can be gathered.

Somehow, it always works out.

I wish more people could actually view the process because it would reinforce awareness of how many good people live in this community.

The typical person may see a story that X amount of dollars has been raised for Sharing at Christmas and that it either is enough or isn’t.

But what I have seen is many of the individuals as they bring their contributions to the Gazette.

All are humble and modest, wanting no recognition unless they want it to honor someone else.

Some donors have more means than others, but the moral value of each contribution is the same. And perhaps it’s not fair for me to judge, but I suspect some donors give more money than they can really afford. That’s remarkable.

We’ve been doing this for about a half century but the enthusiasm of everyone involved does not seem to have diminished.

Joy McCullough and Jane Goode appear to actually have a good time, scrounging hundreds of toys and matching them to the ages of the children on the various applications.

The New Albany tennis team has turned the tedious task of assembling a few hundred boxes into something resembling fun as well, and doing it quickly.

That’s also true for the staff at IM+PC. Placing the food items in the boxes used to take hours, but they have turned it into an assembly line process that is over in only about one hour.

Bruce McCoy and Mike Kirk help out with procuring and delivering the food to the armory, giving a good deal in the process.

It’s difficult to recognize those who actually do the box delivery because they are such a mob with everyone finding and loading boxes at the same time. They are officials and employees in just about every county and city department and I hope they get some sense of satisfaction in helping families each year.

At the risk of actually singling some out, although the help of all the volunteers is essential, the whole project would be in jeopardy without Emergency Management Director Curt Clayton letting us do this at the former National Guard Armory. Not only does he allow the use, but he helps organize and facilitate the whole thing. This year, he and Fire Chief Mark Whiteside and Building Inspector Eric Thomas made the special effort to sort bags and boxes in a way that made the delivery process happen much more quickly and with fewer difficulties than perhaps any time in the past.

I probably am overlooking someone. For that I apologize and hope someone will bring any omissions to my attention.

I write this only because those involved receive little recognition for a lot of selfless work, and the general public has little idea what is involved. Not only that, but I hope this shows how many good people we have in Union County, willing to go out of the way to help their less fortunate neighbors.

It was an afterthought, but I wish we had live-streamed or at least recorded this process to put on Facebook or YouTube or other platform so people would realize what is involved.

Maybe next year, if we can remember, we will.

At any rate, I am sure we will do this again next year, and that the people of Union County will rise to the challenge as they always have.

You are to be lauded for that and we offer thanks.