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IN OUR VIEW: A community that cares all year round

This season highlights the best of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge – it’s people
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Hundreds of people rely on programs like Rudolph’s Recycled Gift Shoppe from the Christmas hamper society to help out their family during the holidays, and the hamper volunteers never disappoint. (The News files)

Flip through this edition of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News, and you’ll notice a theme – people here are very busy giving back to their communities.

Food drives, gifts for the homeless and those in shelters, and toy drives are always busy at this time of the year, as people try to ensure that everyone in our communities has a meaningful and happy holiday season.

It’s a season that highlights how urgent those needs can be.

We’ve seen extremely tough times for some people over the past few years.

The entire community has been through a pandemic, along with the rest of the world.

More locally, homelessness has been an issue that has grown vastly. We have an opioid and toxic drug crisis that is killing far too many people. We’ve gone through sharp extremes of heat and cold, and we see how those impact the most vulnerable among us, including seniors, the physically disabled or frail, and those living on the streets.

And through all of this need, we see people in this community stepping up.

Volunteers are trying to do all they can to make things better for everyone, from young infants all the way up to seniors, and everyone in between.

It might be easy to write this off as a momentary bit of Christmas spirit.

It’s not.

Check almost any edition of the paper through the last year – you’ll see that a week doesn’t go by that someone isn’t organizing a charity run, collecting warm clothes, finding a place for a blood drive, working to create a new space where young people can play sports or go camping…

If you ask these volunteers, even the ones who put in so many hours it might as well be a second job, they’ll usually brush off any praise. And then they’ll point to someone they think is making an even bigger impact than they are.

Our problems, here in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, as well as across the region and throughout Canada, can seem insurmountable at times.

But this is a time of year not only for celebrating with our loved ones, but for thinking back on the year we’ve been through.

A big part of the story of the tough times has to be the stories of those who helped out. Some of them were once in need of help themselves. Some are compelled to act by faith, by conviction, or by compassion.

This holiday season, we will again be reminded that the people of our communities are making them better every day.

Merry Christmas.

READ MORE – IN OUR VIEW: Slow down this season, if you can

RELATED – IN OUR VIEW: Get a snow shovel, please

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Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in Langley, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
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