In a country as affluent as Canada, we sometimes let our minds slip from the reality that not everyone can meet all the costs of paying the regular bills, and still have money left over to make the holiday season special.
There are costs to fruit cake and turkeys, trees, wreaths and gifts, even if they are not grand ones.
Each year the Salvation Army steps up to help those least fortunate among us. Through donations they receive families who need a little extra help at this time of year are assured a good meal, and some toys for the young children who are so expectant of Santa bringing something shiny and new to play with.
Yorkton and area residents have always shown they are willing to help others.
With hours of a blaze which destroyed the apartments in what was formally the Queen Victoria hospital in the city, people were setting up locations in which people could donate clothes and other materials to the families who lost everything.
That is very much our way as a community.
We need only look back on the way everyone in the city rallied together in the wake of the huge flood of July 1, 2010.
This past summer it was a near repeat performance, as again large amounts of rain fell causing widespread flooding of basements.
In between the floods a plowwind tore through Rhein in 2013, and again people came forward quickly with aid.
Certainly there is insurance to help some, and government offers the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program in severe cases, but there are always shortfalls to relief from such supports.
And that is where a local community comes together to aid one another, as witnessed to our Junior hockey club hosting its fourth annual Terrier Teddy Bear Toss Saturday, with the plush toys thrown on the ice after the team’s first goal by fans going to the Salvation Army who will disperse them to create children’s smile over the holidays.
This holiday season Salvation Army representatives are suggesting donations are coming in slower than required if they are to meet the demand for help.
So folks that puts the ball back in our court as the old adage says. We as a community must again step up if these families in need are to share the holiday season we all have come to expect as a time to rejoice in the best of what humankind can aspire too.
So remember to put a few dollars in the red kettles in the coming days and again show we as a community rally to help each other whenever the need arises.
