Help make it a happy new year
Among the many hopes — and promises — for 2025 is a better tomorrow.
The big things.
Shelter.
Food on the table.
Services, programs, medical care for those who need them.
The little things that we would not call luxuries:
Low-cost/no cost places to go.
Support for the arts, for the environment, for educational opportunities, for the community around us.
We can tell ourselves — and truthfully, too — that we pay plenty for “the government” to fix things and that it should.
Or we can look at the needs around us and make a difference.
Today and of our choice.
Actually, we can do both — hold politicians and bureaucrats accountable for promises made and money spent while also offering time or much-needed monetary support to organizations that have a direct impact on the lives of our neighbors and, yes, our own as well.
Over the past few weeks, numerous year-end pleas have been sent our way in hope of garnering donations.
The requests run a full gamut — everything from donations to help house the increased number of those who are homeless — many as a result of Hurricane Ian and other storms and rent increases that followed — to requests to help fill food bank shelves, provide medical care or save animals through adoption or habitat protection.
Donations help house those who are homeless, feed those who are hungry, help those who are abused, those experiencing substance abuse disorder or any health crisis, those needing a hand up to go back to work or continue their education.
There also are organizations that coordinate and/or supplement giving to all of the above — and more.
The economy and politics have also impacted quality-of-life programs.
Numerous Southwest Florida organizations are still reeling from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ unexpected veto of a statewide $32 million legislative appropriation for the arts. Of that, $1.8 million was local, affecting Cultural Park Theatre, the Southwest Florida and Gulf Coast symphony orchestras, Florida Repertory Company, Inc., and the Lee County Alliance for the Arts.
There are a lot of organizations here doing a lot of very good things.
For those wishing for a happier new year, we urge a little action, a donation, however small, to a cause of your choice.
Collectively, we can make a difference.
Collectively, we can not only build a better tomorrow, but a better today.
— Breeze editorial