Shop local, love local, pay it forward

There’s a certain vibe going around our office lately. We here at the Greene County Daily World have been blessed to bring you stories upon stories of some of Greene County’s finest people. People like Eastern Greene’s BJ Yoho, who began a wildly successful toy drive when he was just six years old. People like Bloomfield’s Jayklin Graf, who, at three years of age, takes the reins from BJ Claus to carry on the giving tradition he started. Civic entities like Civitan and the Linton Community Group and the five churches in Lyons who fed the whole community on Thanksgiving.

People like us. People like you.

For the month of October, we sponsored Linton’s Blessing Box, keeping it filled with donations stockpiled by our staff. It was during a blessing-box conversation that some of our staff members brought up the idea of “adopting” a needy family for Christmas, providing toys for the kids, stuffed stockings and a holiday meal, all delivered by Santa himself. Many of our staff members have participated in similar things, like taking tags from an angel tree or donating to Toys for Tots, but we wanted to make this Christmas more personal by taking on a whole family.

Thanks to the help of Linton’s Tracy Keen and JD Rose, a family was found for us. A family of five, they live in Linton and, after contacting the mom, we soon had wish lists for each child. We will, of course, keep their identities confidential to protect their privacy.

Normally, this time of year, we start our “Secret Santa” gift exchange, but this year we will be giving it up in order to focus on someone in need.

Not everyone in the office has the capability to afford everything on their lists, but together we will make sure they do not do without. Those who don’t like to shop can wrap gifts, and those who do like to shop have a whole new reason to hit the stores.

It’s been a bonding thing, getting excited about marking things off of their lists, planning time to wrap gifts and stuff stockings and arranging a local Santa Claus to deliver with us. It makes us feel like we are part of a solution and that feels very good indeed.

So we would like to issue a challenge to all Greene County businesses.

Do like we have done and sponsor someone needy this Christmas. If your business is smaller, team up with another business and sponsor a smaller group. It’s easy to find someone to help. A phone call or an email to any area church or food bank can get you started.

To experience the utter joy on the face of a needy child who opens the door to find Santa and his elves on the porch bearing gifts is a gift you give yourself and a gift you will keep forever. It’s amazing.

If we all, to the best of our ability, teamed up to help others in this way every Christmas, there wouldn’t be a kid in the county who would go without on Christmas Day.

So, think about it, and join us if you can.