I don't know why anyone would come to Ironton," I overheard one woman say recently. "There's nothing here anymore."

At the time I didn't give it much thought. She was just another negative person who looks at the world through glasses that make her always see life's glass as half-empty.

But last week, I thought about that woman and her comments again after I spoke for a few minutes with Paul Fairchild.

Mr. Fairchild stopped by the newspaper to inquire about our placing an advertisement on a small placemat to be used by a church fund-raiser.

Through the course of the discussion, I learned quite a bit about Mr. Fairchild and people like him.

He is a member of the First United Methodist Church Men and Women, a group that will cook up plates of spaghetti on Friday as part of an annual fund-raiser.

The event is one of dozens and dozens of such fund-raisers held throughout Lawrence County each year. Most of them are detailed in the community calendar we publish in each edition.

Such events are so common, many of us, unless we are directly involved, may simply overlook the event and not give it much thought.

Perhaps that commonality is what made me probe a little deeper and ask Mr. Fairchild some questions.

Their event, I discovered, is really a Christmas fund-raiser. The proceeds help pay for $100 gift certificates given to needy families in the area.

"It's such a great thing," Fairchild said, explaining the program. "It's also a humbling experience."

Fairchild has been involved with the spaghetti luncheon and the gift certificate giveaways for years.

"I've had a woman throw her arms around me and a child grab around my leg," he said.

"It's a very good thing," Fairchild said. "We keep the money right here in our community."

To me the fund-raiser, along with the dozens of others like it, epitomizes what is great about Lawrence County - its people. And it is the people who make Lawrence County a great place in which to live.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Tribune. He can be reached at (740) 532-1445 ext. 12 or by e-mail to kevin.cooper@irontontribune.com.