OUR VIEW: Make a difference now and in the future

Editorials

December 21, 2009

Anonymous The Tonawanda News Mon Dec 21, 2009, 11:46 PM EST

Western New York has always been known for its generosity. Whether it’s at a benefit for a sick neighbor, a fund drive to assist the family burned out of their home, tossing some spare change into an iron kettle or buying a candy bar from a 12-year-old raising money to send his pee-wee hockey team to a distant tournament, residents here are willing to give. It’s what gives Buffalo — and its suburbs — the slogan “City of Good Neighbors.”

Yet, there’s still more that can be done not only during this season of “good will toward men,” but throughout the year.

We tend to escalate our giving during the holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. It’s during these last few weeks of the year that we often read and hear about charitable contributions. A review of the Tonawanda News gives one perspective of what’s been accomplished:

• On page 3A of today’s paper readers learned that City of Tonawanda firefighters assisted the Salvation Army with filling a staggering 384 grocery bags for needy families.

• The annual “Rockin’ with Santa” event at the Eldridge Club helped provide toys for 130 children this year — double last year’s benefactors.

• Children attending the town’s elementary schools benefited from the Toys for the Town drive, coordinated by the Department of Youth, Parks and Recreation.

• North Tonawanda’s 26th annual Coats for Kids event, with the assistance of city police officers and others, raised money to provide coats, hats and gloves to roughly 300 youths from 140 families.

Yet, as mentioned, there’s always a need to help during this season of giving and the rest of the year. Whether it’s people in poverty, struggling senior citizens, the unemployed worker still reeling from the recession, the sick who can’t afford health insurance or who have seen their workman’s compensation run out; they all have families to feed and clothe. Their needs won’t go away when we hang up a new calendar.

Mike Billoni of the Food Pantry of Western New York told the News in November that regional need is up approximately 11 percent over last year. The local Salvation Army placed it at 20 percent.

With Christmas just three days away, charitable groups are still seeking toys, food and other basic supplies and necessities.

Tomorrow is the last day in 2009 to make a donation to — or request food from — the North Tonawanda Inter-Church Food Pantry, located at 100 Ridge Road. It’s shutting down for the holidays Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. and won’t reopen until Jan. 4.

It doesn’t have to be much. A few canned goods to your local food pantry, a few dollars to your favorite charity. Contact a church to learn where there’s need.

What makes this region unrivaled in its charity is not important. We can solidify our status by digging a little deeper to help our neighbors.

Text Only

Editorials

Give chicken plan free range
May 3, 2012
Scale back Canal Fest hours
A decision Tuesday by the Tonawanda Common Council to require daily Canal Fest operations on the south side of the canal to conclude by 10 p.m., rather than 11, apparently isn’t sitting well with Canal Fest organizers, who have yet to agree to the change.

April 5, 2012
OUR VIEW: Kudos to Slaughter on STOCK Act
Rep. Louise Slaughter and a small band of colleagues in the House of Representatives deserve praise for their determination in putting a stop to a long-standing dirty secret in politics — that members of Congress have been making a boatload of cash by parlaying their official knowledge of the nation’s affairs into private fortunes on the stock market.

March 28, 2012
OUR VIEW: Time to fundamentally rethink education
In the three school districts primarily composing the Tonawandas we are seeing, in varying degrees, the beginning of the end of education here as we know it.

March 21, 2012
OUR VIEW: Super job by Bills on signing Williams
More than the Xs and Os of a football playbook, the Mario Williams signing is a generation-in-the-waiting signal that this franchise is finally on the right track.

March 17, 2012
OUR VIEW: WNY must build on success at ECC
In reading Sunday’s cover story by reporter Jill Keppeler, readers probably shared our shock in the success story that is the Erie Community College industrial technology program.

March 6, 2012
OUR VIEW: ‘Mailing it in’ is not good enough
The U.S. Postal Service has been mailing it in for years.

March 1, 2012
KEPPELER: Daydream believer
I felt sorry for Whitney Houston. But this week, the world lost two people whose departure makes me truly nostalgic.

March 1, 2012 1 Photo
OUR VIEW: Slisz v. Beyer exposes flaws in election system
Though voters in the city who have waited for nearly four months to find out who won might find this welcome news, the problems with our election system this razor-thin race uncovered are anything but comforting.

February 25, 2012
OUR VIEW: Officials need to take walk
The tumult and excitement over approving Nik Wallenda’s request to walk across the Niagara Gorge has at times been deafening.

February 23, 2012
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

OUR VIEW: Make a difference now and in the future

Site Map

Contact Us