This is the time of the year "enjoyed" by our staff as the Operation Holidays.
For those of you who are not aware, The Mercury each year runs a fund-raising campaign for needy families with children of the greater Pottstown area. For the months of November and December, we become something of a social-service agency -- fielding calls from people who want to "get on the list," opening stacks of mail, answering questions about who is getting how much from whom, tabulating contributions, and writing stories for the paper about the plights of families in need.
In a few weeks, we will be addressing and distributing thousands of dollars worth of gift cards so that parents can buy gifts ($75 per child) for their children in time for Christmas. One of The Mercury's advertising managers will order nearly $8,000 in food; the facilities manager will procure some 300 boxes to be assembled; the distributions manager will round up drivers to volunteer their time for delivery; the assistant to the publisher will call schools and solicit student volunteers for packing; and here in the newsroom, Sue Klaus and I (I like to refer to her as Mrs. Claus) will finalize the lists of names and numbers of children referred to us by agencies.
We get the names from Headstart classrooms, local hospitals, a community college program that helps young parents trying to get an education, school districts, food pantries and the Cluster of Churches outreach program. We serve people in public housing developments, clients of the Women's Center who are victims of domestic abuse, mental health patients, and a list from the local Department of Public Welfare office of those who are rejected for public assistance because they earn too much for aid but too little to make ends meet.
We have been doing this for 16 years, and we have fine-tuned the procedures to the point that the program runs pretty easily these days. But, it is still a lot of work at a time of year when holidays, vacations and the inevitable illnesses already leave us short of time.
We grumble about it.
I tell new reporters here not to be discouraged if they call someone who is less than appreciative of the help we are offering. I tell them not to become jaded by the ones who are trying to work the system. We know there are those who will take advantage of the generosity of this program.
I tell them it only takes one truly deserving family to remind us that Operation Holiday is a good thing, a positive force of giving in a season of much wanting.
I tell them that I mean this.
The poverty and the need in our region is so much greater than we realize until we go looking. Operation Holiday forces us to look.
It lets us become part of the solution for just two months instead of just the messengers.
It gives us the chance to let our readers be generous.
I think sometimes that the greater joy of Operation Holiday is felt by those who send in a collection of change or who write out a check for $100, anonymously, because they can.
Because being reminded that we have the compassion within us to give is a good thing.
Operation Holiday reminds us in this often dire news business that people are still good and kind and generous.
I hope to never become so jaded that I forget.