At a timewhen most of us are engaging in a little self-indulgence - and if our focus isn't on ourselves, it's on our nearest and dearest - it's heartening to be able to report stories of people coming to the aid of complete strangers.
Heartening, but not surprising.
Wanganui's strongsense of community spirit and compassion has rightly gained renown. The offers of help for the Shemwell family, whose Aramoho home was burgled and then set alight on Monday, have come from various quarters, many of whom had never heard of them until their bad news appeared in the pages of the Chronicle.
The desire to help those in need is typical of our community and, of course, Christmas is a time when the many volunteer organisations go that extra mile to make sure no one misses out on some festive good cheer.
Witness the City Mission Christmas dinner providing a feed for about 200 people.
The Chronicle Coastguard campaign has also started to garner support locally as we aim to raise funds to upgrade the facilities for their emergency operation.
So here's hoping that community spirit extends to someone coming up with a means of rescuing two-tonne steer B.Day (see story on page 1), currently stuck in mud and facing a bleak future. Of course, not everyone subscribes to the view it's better to give than receive ...
After Rotary members had delivered food hampers to the needy - as selected by various grass-roots service organisations - one woman rang up demanding that she have a hamper of goodies delivered to her straight away, and she was not ready to take "Sorry, they've all been handed out" as an answer. Which just goes to show - there's always one ...
