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Editorial
As we noted in one of our front page stories today, Christmas miracles are abounding in our midst this year. We are astonished by the innumerable ways in which people are going out of their way to extend Christmas cheer to everyone, from the least among us to the most prosperous. Spreading Christmas cheer is a two-way street, benefiting both those who give and those who receive.
A good example of this is the Rockbridge Christmas basket program. On a recent Saturday folks gathered at the Virginia Horse Center to pack up 1,900 boxes with 40 tons of food that was then distributed to 1,200 households in the Rockbridge area. This all-volunteer initiative, now in its 77th year, continues to spread joy far and wide.
Toy drives to make sure no child goes without a little cheer this Christmas were held in Glasgow and Goshen again this year, as well as the annual one conducted by the Feed the Need Foundation. The Buena Vista Junior Women’s Club led an Angel Tree program that distributed presents to 68 children from 35 families, while the Salvation Army once again put up its trees at Walmart to provide gifts to area children.
The Rockbridge Area Relief Association, Rockbridge Community Table, the Glasgow/Natural Bridge Food Pantry and the Helping Hands pantry at Fairfield Presbyterian Church are making sure no one goes hungry this holiday season, in keeping with missions that actually go on all year long.
Rockbridge area residents have responded with generosity to the plight of those in western North Carolina and southwest Virginia who suffered through devastating floods from Hurricane Helene this fall. Multiple trips to flood-ravaged areas have been made by local folks bearing gifts and other forms of aid. This assistance has continued up through the present time, with trips to two North Carolina communities occurring the past two weekends.
Several hundred children in our community and in flood-damaged areas of North Carolina have been the beneficiaries of gifts from initiatives undertaken by Spencer Home Center, its employees and customers. We detail those efforts in a story that can be found elsewhere in today’s paper.
We also acknowledge the kindness, generosity and spirit of Christmas exhibited by Mike Clements, who has been portraying Santa Claus for the past 50 years. You may wonder how he could have been doing this for that long? Well, he was a teenager when he began the gig as a stock boy at Family Dollar. For details, read about it in a story, also found elsewhere in today’s paper.
We are indeed blessed to live in a community with people so intent on spreading joy to each other. In that spirit, we wish all of our readers a very merry Christmas!
