There has been a lot of advertising recently encouraging people to give to the Central Illinois Christmas Fund.
PAUL GORDON
Originally called the Journal Star Christmas Fund, it has been raising money to help those in need for 113 years. Because of the giving nature of Peoria-area citizens, a few million dollars have been raised.
As a retired reporter/editor at the Journal Star I can tell you we employees of the newspaper were always proud of the effort. We were grateful that the owners of the newspaper, from the Pindells and Slanes to the Copley family and finally the corporate owners, kept the Christmas Fund alive.
Every year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day the Journal Star published stories about the people and families needing help and who applied for one of the Christmas baskets. We reporters would kinda cringe when the assignments were made for those stories even though we knew they were coming.
The stories were not the easy fluff pieces you might expect. Quite often they were emotional — let’s face it, they were meant to help generate more giving — and we had to take care not to embarrass these folks who usually were just down on their luck and needed a lift.
And truth be told, we all enjoyed doing the Christmas Fund stories; not because it was guaranteed front page byline but because we got to meet some pretty incredible people and knew we were doing something to help. It was humbling.
I now realize one of the best things about the Journal Star Christmas Fund was that not one lick of politics tainted it. It didn’t matter who gave to the fund or who benefited from it, no court actions were necessary to make sure the benefits were released. It didn’t hinge on anybody’s budget, nor did it ever get caught in the crossfire of two battling parties.
Look, I’m not so naive to think the Journal Star Christmas Fund (I mean Central Illinois Christmas Fund) should be compared with the discontinuation of SNAP benefits during the recent shutdown.
My point is that when any of our citizens, especially children, the elderly and the infirm, have a true need for help, screw the politics and get it done. Better yet, pass legislation that would take SNAP out of the equation whenever there is a shutdown.
I do not for one minute believe that can’t be done. The impending discontinuation of SNAP benefits was likely a part of why the shutdown ended when it did. I would hope that would be because of real caring for the less fortunate. The cynic in me thinks it was at least partly because the less fortunate are also voters.
There still was some disruption to SNAP and other funds that go to helping the less fortunate before the shutdown ended. Something to keep in mind come election season.
Anyway, the true spirit of Christmas is giving. It’s helping those with needs.
Merry Christmas, friends.