March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Some Thanksgiving leftovers

Get enough to eat on Thursday? Maybe you overdid it just a wee bit? Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. We celebrate our gratitude for our blessing by creating major inrestinal distress. Our prayer before the meal should be “Thank you for all our blessing,s we wil now attempt to end our lives thorugh gluttony, amen.”

If you were raised by parents who lived through the Depression, then you know that no Thanksgiving is complete without some helping of induced guilt about those who went to shelters our soup kithces for their turkey.

Feel free to be as guilty as you want, but also know this: Manna was able to send out 2,000 turkeys to those in need this year. According to Bill Rae, the director of Manna, that’s almost 50 percent more than last year. Rae is effusive about the success his organization has had this year. “I feel blessed and privileged to live in an areas of the country that gives to its needy in this way,” he said. “I’ve never had a better Thanksgiving. And these people are very grateful.”

Wait a minute. The director of a charitable organization is actually content with the generosity of those who have more than they need? We should actually feel good about the condition of charitable giving in central Maine?

“Bangor gave until there was nothing left to give. We tried to buy turkeys from the grocery store last week, and there was noithing left,” Rae said. “When you turn guilt into compassion, everybody wins.”

He continued, “Next Monday we are going to kick into our Christmas season. This is our ninth Christmas, and we plan on raising 1,000 gifts this year. We fully expect to be successful.”

What about a really sad story, Bill? Got one of those tear-jerkers?

“We have plenty of those, but let me tell you about one of our successes,” he said. “A gal named Wendy, she and her husband came in here for a few months about nine years ago. The husband was able to strengthen himself out, got a job with a concrete plant, and they were buying a house. They now have four kids. Last week, the husband was laid off, and a fire wiped out their house and call their belongings. They’ve lifted themselves up in the past, and that’s why we’ll do everything we can to help them.”

What do you need for Christmas?

“We are making a list,” Rae said, “so come on in or give us a call. Scarves, gloves, coats, or give an hour a week of your time to drive someone around who has no transportation. Give if yourself, and don’t feel guilty!”

I was stating to feel too optimistic about the condition of mankind, so I gave Dennis Marble a call over at the Greater Bangor Area Shelter. Maybe he could shame me with a nice moral lecture about the less fortunate. Alas, he was no help either.

“This community is the most supportive of the need I’ve ever lived in,” he said. The bad news is that the state and federal grants are down $30,000 from last year. Tha good news is that he has seen 5 to 8 percent increases in private donations each of the last three years. The shelter begins its annual appeal this month. What do you need, in addition to money?

“What we really need is just about anybody with common sense, a good plumber would be great, anybody who is dependable, answering the phones, cooking and cleaning,” Marble said. “We have carpets that need to be ripped out and bathroom floors that need tiling.”

Certainly the shelter must be overflowing with the homeless?

“Our needs are up a little but we’ve been able to get more people into permanent housing,” he said. “I’d rather tell you about a 52-year-old man who came to us about 1 1/2 years ago. He did everything right, got a job and an apartment, but unfortunately, he needed gall bladder surgery and he had no health insurance. The surgeon was willing to reduce his fee, the hospital was willing to work with us, but we still needed about $700. Word got out and within a shoirt time a local church and a fraternal organization provided most of it. and all these people aree giving in multiple directions. This is a very generous community.”

All right, already. So maybe we are taking care of our less fortunate. I can still fee guilty, can’t I? Maybe I should give my mother a call. She can tell me about all those lettuce sandwiches.

Jack Keefe is a Bangor psychologist whose column appears Saturdays. His e-mail address is jakeefe@aol.com.


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