Press and Sun-Bulletin Offers Lend-A-Hand Program and Invites Support

Press and Sun-Bulletin offered an editorial about the growing need in the Southern Tier.

A few weeks ago, I skipped the candy and nuts in the fundraising catalog for Bainbridge High School and instead signed up to buy a leather wallet.

I planned to count on Santa for a new one, but the weighty message of a quotation embossed on the back of the wallet compelled me to order it myself as a reminder of our difficult economic times:

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
The words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our president during the Great Depression, ring true today as Southern Tier residents and others nationwide suffer through this recession.

Everyone is aware of today's challenges that are highlighted by double-digit unemployment in some areas, fears of more layoffs and furloughs, new faces at food pantries, bankruptcies, and service organizations struggling to help the continually growing number of needy.

"We're in the middle of our Thanksgiving efforts now and we're seeing a 10 percent increase over last year, and that's people we've never seen before," said Joe Slavik, executive director, Catholic Charities of Broome County.

Alan Hertel, executive director of the United Way of Broome County, said his agency saw a 15 percent increase in calls to First Call for Help from 2007 to 2008, more than half of those for such basic needs as food, clothing and shelter.

"The 2009 numbers look like they will exceed 2008," Hertel said. "In the first six months we already received 17,000 calls, again mainly for basic needs. It's going to be a challenge to meet our goal of $3,850,000, which is what we got last year."

Hertel noted that layoffs of more than 2,000 workers at such major companies as Lockheed-Martin, BAE Systems, Endicott Interconnect, IBM and Vail-Ballou have a double impact on his agency and others. The agencies can't count on the donations 2they've received in previous years from those now among the unemployed, but they can expect to serve them, too.

Hertel and Slavik's testimonial about the plight of area residents is evidence that this is a time for all of us to give help for the holidays.

The Press & Sun-Bulletin plans to expand its efforts beyond its annual Lend-A-Program, which accepts monetary donations from individuals, families, organizations and businesses in our community and distributes these to agencies that work with those who have fallen on hard times.

We will kick off Lend-A-Hand again on Thanksgiving Day, but we hope to use the reach of our newspaper and pressconnects.com in the community to tell everyone about the needs of nonprofits that are helping others.

We are asking every nonprofit charity in our area to share its top three needs so we can let people know how they can help the agencies help others. We will publish the lists and other contact information in the newspaper and on pressconnects.com to alert people to the ways they can help by donating money, food, clothes, furniture and by adopting families and even serving as volunteers at non-profits where staffs have dwindled because of the economy.

To get your agency involved, send an e-mail to newsroom@pressconnects.com. Put "A Time to Give" in the subject line and provide this information:

Agency name.
Mission of agency.
Agency mailing address and physical address (if different).
Three agency/client needs.

We look forward to receiving and sharing the non-profits' list so we can show that our generous community passes FDR's test.