Groups help spread holiday cheer

Maybe the economic tidings remain less than glad this year, but good deeds and giving seem headed for a market high.

Homemade and knitted appears to be the popular style of gift at area homeless shelters and transitional housing. Gifts, both from home and the store, are coming in much faster than usual but probably not at the rate ultimately needed.

"People must come through when asked to help," a man new to Ogden and to being homeless and jobless said Monday afternoon. "I've just been here for a few hours, and I can tell there's compassion, and it seems genuine. I know already that for someone not to find more than enough to eat in Utah, they'd have to work pretty hard."

The 35 or so families at The Road Home in Salt Lake and the 50 or so families in the overflow site in Midvale are among the first to accept the Brighton Gardens Assisted Living generosity of 100 hand-knitted winter hats.

Another group of seniors at the Sandy Senior Center will donate slippers to homeless veterans. So far, in what center director John Warnke calls "a call to arms," hundreds of volunteer seniors have knitted 324 pairs. Already sure of the project's success, the Sandy Senior Center will hold the first of what is to become an annual "Honoring the Sandy Knitter" celebration.

Food donations are also big this year. One of the biggest will be the 3,700 turkeys unloaded by a human chain of volunteers scheduled for Wednesday at the Indian Walk-in Center.

The turkeys are just a portion of the total gift Harmons' stores' founders, store employees and volunteers are planning. Harmons reported that 10,025 people purchased $10 turkey certificates this month, raising $100,250. Harmons added an additional $10,000 for a grand total of $110,250.

The money raised will go toward purchasing 8,000 turkeys for Thanksgiving for the Utah Food Bank to deliver to local food pantries, including the Crossroads Urban Center, the Dixie Care and Share in St. George and other organizations in Orem and Ogden.

Harmons will allocate the remaining funds to purchase turkeys and hams for food banks in December.

Things haven't been going that great for many businesses, including AutoSpa Express, which Monday announced it is lending a hand to and raising money for the Utah Food Bank, not because it can afford to, but because it ought to.

A statement from the locally owned car wash said that, regardless of political views, people should lend a helping hand and help each other through economic misfortunes.

And Van Cott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy, Utah's oldest law firm, has taken on Associated Food Stores as a partner in a fund drive for Utah Food Bank.

The drive for funds will begin Friday with stores in Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties. Van Cott will provide a cash contribution to the drive, will volunteer filling grocery bags for purchase and donation and will encourage donations of food and money to the Food Bank through its Web site at www.vancott.com.

e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com