Season of Giving

Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 14, 2004

In less than two weeks, Americans will sit down to the table with their families and pass the proverbian platter of turkey.

After the Thanksgiving meal, talk will often turn to Christmas shopping. But for many in Lawrence County, the holidays are not merry days. Poverty replaces hope with uncertainty and hunger.

Fortunately, numerous churches, civic groups, schools and other groups see the need and step forward to help their neighbors.

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The need

According to U.S. Census statistics, 18.9 percent of Lawrence County's population lived below the poverty level in 1999. For the Rev. Jim Cremeans, director of the Ironton City Mission, those grim statistics are more than just numbers. They're reality. They represent the hungry people he sees every day.

"It's heart breaking to see what condition some are in and what little means they have to provide for their families," Cremeans said. "There are a lot of tough situations."

Cremeans said he has seen the number of needy families asking for help increase over the years. "Probably when I first became director, we were helping 500-600 families. Now we're helping 4,500. It's just been steady. And I think we've been serving more in the last 10 years. I think it was brought about by the loss of jobs," Cremeans said.

Cremeans said families these days tend to be smaller, but many are headed by single parents.

"I'd say from last year, 30-40 percent are repeats. The others are new people," he said.

Not far away at the Church of Christ at 10th and Vine streets in Ironton, discussion of hard times and hungry people is a familiar one to Doug Elkins, who operates the church's food pantry.

Elkins said an average of 300 families pick up food boxes from the church each month. "Probably the slowest months were January and February and then it just climbed steadily," Elkins said. "We're running way over and we just can't keep enough food. We're passing out 13,000 to 15,000 pounds of food a month."

Elkins said he attributes the number of hungry people to the loss of jobs in the county. No work means no money.

Elkins said the food pantry began in 2001 and as it grew, so did the line of people seeking help.

In Chesapeake, the numbers are somewhat smaller but the need is still real. Don Moore, who operates the Chesapeake Community Outreach food pantry, along with his wife, Alice Moore, said his organization serves an average of 150 families every month.

The helping hand

While Lawrence County may be short on jobs, its citizens are not lacking in compassion. Each Christmas giving trees, Secret Santa programs, Adopt-A-Family prgrams and canned food drives help put smiles on needy faces. In some, cases, the giving is not confined to the holidays; it continues unabated all year long.

The Ironton City Mission has been lending its hand to the needy for the last 60 years. In addition to the monthly assistance, the city mission will serve dinner to approximately 474 people Thanksgiving Day. Right after Thanksgiving, volunteers begin assembling toy boxes for needy children. One thousand children received Christmas toys from the city mission last year. Thirty-five to 40 volunteers will spend a day putting together Christmas food boxes for the needy.

"For the most part, they're thankful. Some say they would not have Christmas if not for the mission," Cremeans said.

Much of the food and toys that are handed out at the city mission are donated by a plethora of local groups and businesses - friendships for which Cremeans said he is thankful.

Students at Chesapeake middle and high schools were knee-deep in corn Friday. And green beans. And peas. The students at the high school collected more than 1,000 food items, and students at the middle school collected more than 3,000 cans of food to donate to the Chesapeake Community Center's food pantry. They managed it in one week.

"The food pantry has been low on food, the lowest it's been in quite a while," Chesapeake Community Center Director Barbara Williams said. "It seems like we're seeing more and more people and less food."

Williams said when she approached the school about a canned food drive, she had no idea it would be this successful, or that students would take it so much to heart.

"It makes me feel proud we did something good for the community," eight-grader Alex Wells said as he and some of his classmates sized up the middle school's load of food.

Other schools are also pitching in to help in their communities, too.

Next week, students at Ironton Junior High School will have a canned food drive to benefit the Church of Christ in Ironton's food pantry. Students at South Point Middle School will begin a canned food drive next week, too.

Last year the South Point students collected more than 3,000 items of food for food pantries at area churches.

South Point Middle School special education students organize the drive and students in all classes are urged to take part by bringing food. Teacher Katrina Swann said special education students collect the food from the homerooms and count it. She said for them, this serves as a math lesson, as well as a lesson in giving.

"The kids look forward to it," Swann said."I think it helps with their self-confidence. I think they feel a sense of self-worth, gives them a good warm feeling to know they've helped someone."