Needy Don’t Disappear on Dec. 26

The guilt began forming during the second call to the rescue mission. By the time I’d gotten hold of the Salvation Army, it began to ooze like an erupting volcano.

“The holidays are approaching,” I thought, “and why haven’t I found time to do more for the homeless, the helpless, those less fortunate than myself?”

The question hit me like a sledgehammer because writing about the needy is my beat. Working on stories about the overwhelming needs of so many people makes you question your own compassion.

Like on a recent blustery night just before Thanksgiving.

A young woman living with her husband on the streets of Santa Ana had a birthday coming up. She thought aloud about spending that day alone with her husband in a nice hotel with room service. I wanted to give them money to fulfill that dream, but had no cash myself. I ended up offering to launch a so-far unsuccessful effort to find a relative living in Orange. I don’t usually want or feel the need to impose charity on the people I write about. But, after all, it was Thanksgiving.

The holidays are a time of giving. Everyone seems a bit more willing to replace the self-absorbed demands of job and precious gym time with thoughts of family and friends. And this abundance of generous spirit often spills over into efforts to help others.

It is the one time of year that charitable and religious organizations are inundated with donations and would-be volunteers, officials say. And for many such groups, the money generated during the holidays must carry them through the year.

“The reality is that . . . the holidays are tax write-off time,” said Diane Russell, director of the YWCA’s women’s shelter in Santa Ana. “From Halloween on through Christmas, we get more phone calls. People are interested in what we are doing.”

Charity workers are both grateful and troubled by this holiday surge of helpfulness. Novice one-time volunteers do little to alleviate the stresses and strains placed on charities during the holidays, when demands and expectations are greater. And those same people who will leave work early to drop off a turkey at the local rescue mission during the holidays may barely remember the address during the summer.

If people resisted the urge to toss their good will in one December shot and instead spread their largess throughout the year, some of those strains might be eased, say charity workers.

“We have to turn away people, especially on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, (because) we get more stuff than we know what to do with sometimes,” said the director of a soup kitchen in my own hometown, whom I had hastily called to offer assistance. “The rest of the year we can go wanting and have to appeal for help. But I can’t quarrel with people who want to give of themselves, even if only for two days of the year.”

The trick, said the woman, is to spread the obvious word that people are just as needy in March and August as they are in November and December.

“Won’t you remember that?” she asked.

“Will I?” I thought.

That is the message charitable groups say they want to convey this holiday season: There is an abundance of year-round opportunities for volunteers, even those hard-driving types who work 10 hours a day.

“We need to make that appeal, especially to those who feel they want to be involved,” said Dennis White, director of the Episcopal Service Alliance in Santa Ana. “We have many retired people who help, but there is a need for younger people to participate. They can join a community advisory board and be involved in helping to raise consciousness in the community or do fund-raising. There are Saturday programs, or they can choose one special event during the year.”

I made a few telephone calls and found one that worked best for me.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ladle soup on Christmas if you really want to, said the director of my chosen charity. But you might feel a lot more satisfaction in the knowledge that your generosity extends throughout the year, she added.