Editor’s note: Every day there are rays of light that shine into the lives of people through their neighbors, their co-workers, their families and even through complete strangers. This column is devoted to exposing these sunbeams to the light and offering readers an opportunity to share good news. We plan to occasionally offer up our own sunbeams, too.
Dinner was blessed

The organizers of the Community Christmas Dinner would like to thank everyone who helped to make the dinner a tremendous success. The help of many volunteers enabled us to serve over 180 meals to members of our community. Thank you for your support.

Barbara Murphy, West Paris
Community kindness

On behalf of the Livermore Falls Church of the Nazarene, I offer a grateful “thank you” to all those who donated their time and equipment for snow removal from the church parking lot. Their generosity made it possible for many cars to park during the funeral of Riley Davis.

I also want to thank a local supermarket for its generosity of donations to help with the food.

Gloria Hargenrader, Livermore Falls
Hope for the future

On behalf of the staff of Tri-County Mental Health Services and the children and families we serve, we want to express a special “thank you” to the members and staff of the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce for the amazing holiday toy drive. We were overwhelmed with their generosity.

We serve nearly 3,000 children each year, many of whom live in extreme poverty and difficult situations. Some would never dream of having such beautiful toys and clothes as gifts. We try to bring them hope for the future, and you reinforced that by showing how much our community cares for its children.

The outpouring of support also showed us something important. In these difficult budget times, we continue to struggle with cuts in mental health services these children and families need. As this population disproportionately bears the burden of funding cuts, it sometimes feels like no one cares. Our hopes have been revived that people do care, and will not leave our most vulnerable people behind.

From all of us at Tri-County Mental Health Services, sincere thanks to all the Chamber members for their generosity, and for the greatest gift of all, hope for the future.

Chris Copeland, executive director

Tina Clark, director of development and community relations

Kim Foskett, manager of child and family services

Tri-County Mental Health Services, Auburn
Many helping hands

On behalf of the Women’s Club of Greene, I would like to express sincere appreciation to all the sponsors of the annual 2007 “Share So Others Will Know You Care” Christmas program for less-privileged children and seniors in the area. Donations of cash, new clothing and toys, as well as gift certificates, help families to truly enjoy the holiday season.

I would like to offer a special “thank you” to all the staff at Greene Central School, who take names from the “Giving Tree” to ensure that all of their students can experience the joy of Christmas.

For the past several decades, the club has provided Christmas for our friends and neighbors that need a helping hand during the holidays. This is an annual program that requires ongoing work throughout the entire year.

All of the Women’s Club members express their sincerest appreciation to all the donors for ongoing support of this program.

Brenda Theriault, Greene
Shovels full of help

I am writing to an incident that happened on Turner Street near the Community College. This was Dec. 17 around noon time. The street was covered with snow. All of a sudden my car started to shake and started to slide on the right side of the road into the snowbank.

Just seconds after it happened two men came over to my car. One of the men was driving a pickup truck. Each men got a shovel from the truck.

Both shoveled the front end of the car and also the rear section. The man who had the truck picked up a large chain from the truck.

The chain was hooked up to the rear bumper and was unable to get the car out. It was then hooked up to the front and the car was pulled out. I want to thank these two gentlemen for getting me out of the snowbank.

Marcel Guay, Jay
True local support

The members of the Norway/Paris Lions Club would like to extend a special “thank you” to the Oxford County Agricultural Society for their generosity in providing the club with a wonderful location for our annual Antique Auto and Truck Show.

Because the Lions Club has been able to hold this event for many years at the fairgrounds, everyone who comes to enjoy viewing the many antique vehicles now associate this event with this location in the community. It is very centralized; the grounds, as well as the buildings, are very well maintained, and the fairgrounds also provides people with convenient campsites to be able to stay on the grounds for both days of the show.

The Norway/Paris Lions Club appreciates having a great organization such as the Oxford County Agricultural Society that will work alongside us to help provide avenues to raise money so that we may furnish much-needed eyeglasses and hearing aids for those who otherwise would not be able to afford them. The community is very lucky to have nonprofit organizations that do so much for the local people as well as outside the immediate area.

Carol Williams, Oxford

President, Norway/Paris Lions Club
Giving and giving

Rumford does it again! On Dec. 12, the Knights of Columbus held a blood drive for the Red Cross at the American Legion, which was a huge success. The Rumford area donated 92 pints of blood.

We thank you all for taking the time and effort for this vital donation, and also the people who came but could not give for medical reasons. Your intentions were certainly appreciated by everyone.

The Red Cross staff mention to us how much they enjoyed coming to Rumford because the people are so giving. We had one lady who came to donate that was 86 years young. Thanks to the American Legion for letting us use your facilities. And a special thanks to Paul Arsenault for organizing this blood drive.

Richard Shea, Rumford

The Sun Journal encourages its readers to offer their own sunbeams in writing. Please limit letters to 200 words. Letters must be signed and must include the author’s full name, address and telephone number, for verification purposes only. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Letters may be edited.

Address letters to: Letters to the Editor, Sunbeams, Sun Journal, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Fax: 207-777-3436. E-mail: letters@sunjournal.com, and note that the letter is for Sunbeams. For more information, call Anthony Ronzio, editorial page editor, at 800-482-0759, ext. 2285.