The Shawnee Dispatch / Helping hands abound

Archive for Wednesday, May 7, 2008

May 7, 2008

There seems to be no end to the charitable works of Shawnee residents - and for that the entire community should be thankful.

The pages of The Dispatch in recent months have featured stories on the good works of several volunteer groups from the Shawnee area lending their hands to the less fortunate, both in and out of the community.

Just last week, The Dispatch featured a front-page story about volunteers with Rebuilding Together Shawnee, an effort that brought out more than 100 volunteers to perform repairs on the houses of five Shawnee residents. In one instance, volunteers did an estimated $75,000 worth of work on one home.

Inside the same edition was a story on Shawnee Rotary Club members returning from Mexico, where they helped build a health clinic in an impoverished village. The trip was the third in the past four years to Chacala for the Rotary members, who already had helped build an elementary school and kindergarten building in years past.

Earlier this spring, The Dispatch told of a group of local church members who have been making trips to Coffeyville, to help residents there recover from the aftermath of last fall's devastating flooding.

These examples don't even take into account the many monetary donations residents have made to numerous charitable endeavors, all of which illustrate this city's residents' generosity.

Talking points

Do you think Veterans Day should be a prominent holiday?

Absolutely. We wouldn’t be able to sit here and eat lunch like this if it weren’t for the veterans. We’ve got millions of people that fought and died to save this country; it should be more than a bank holiday.

— Byron Arthur

More responses