12/28: What you’re saying: Eric Garrison, and Michael Ross

Wonderful outpouring

Orange County, North Carolina is a great place to live, but many local families struggle during the holidays. People frequently donate to food pantries at Christmas time, but the community needs are broader than that.

Holy Family Catholic Church in Hillsborough reached out to Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM) to find out what else can the church community could do. HFCC’s chapter of the Knights of Columbus had recently done a food drive to help restock the food pantry shelves, but Holy Family knew that is only part of what local families need over the holidays.

Two of Holy Family’s groups, the Family Pastoral Ministry and the Knights of Columbus chapter, organized this Christmas charity project. A Christmas tree setup in the Church’s atrium covered with angel-shaped hang tags suggested gifts the Parish could provide for local families in need, including gift cards, coats and accessories, diapers, and toys. The value of the gift was left to the giver so that anyone could feel the joy of giving. Family Pastoral Ministry members Cynthia Garrison and Linda LaClair first printed 100 tags in both English and Spanish, representing the large Anglo and Latino makeup of the church. After the first weekend, the tree was bare; parishioners had committed to buying gifts for all the hang tags. Another 80 tags were added to the tree, and were again quickly taken.

Thanks to Holy Family’s generous church members, over 150 gifts and over $900 in gift cards were donated to OCIM and Toys-For-Tots, keeping all of the donations local to Hillsborough and Orange County. “We wanted to make sure all donations ended up directly helping those in need right here,” said LaClair. Five very full SUV’s full of diapers, baby wipes, toys, coats, blankets, sleeping bags, hats, gloves, socks and other items were delivered to the charities.

Holy Family’s pastor, Fr. Mark Betti, the Family Pastoral Ministry, and the Hillsborough Knights of Columbus all admit they were simply facilitators in this wonderful outpouring of support for local families in need. The members of Hillsborough’s Catholic community shared the joy of Christmas with the greater community of Hillsborough and Orange County, inspired by Christ’s love for us all. The charity event served as a wonderful reminder of the deeper meaning to all the decorating, gift giving and celebrating of the season.

Holy Family Catholic Church is located at 216 Governor Burke Road in Hillsborough, and can be found online at hfcch.org. Newcomers and visitors are welcome.

Wrong and reckless

Mark Davidson and Miriam Thompson in their letter of 12/17 claim that Trump’s decision to acknowledge at least part of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is both wrong and reckless on four accounts. But, the first two are incompatible with each other.

First, Jerusalem, belongs to no nation, and should be administered by the U.N.

Second, they hope for Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine.

Their clear message: Just make sure, whatever argument works, that Jews don’t have any right to sovereignty.

I leave to the reader how to decide what words best describe such thought processes.

This story was originally published December 28, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "12/28: What you’re saying: Eric Garrison, and Michael Ross."