“Hope Haven in need,” said the headline in Friday morning’s Sun Journal. It seemed certain, with only two days before Christmas, that some children would not be getting gifts.

As a newspaper, we write a lot of stories like this throughout the year, and we are never surprised at the way this community opens its hearts and wallets for a good cause.

But we really thought this appeal had come too late. People were busy doing their last-minute shopping. Many were already traveling.

We should not have doubted.

By Friday afternoon, Hope Haven’s Christmas toy program was overwhelmed with toys and contributions from this community.

Last year, the organization’s Others Ministry had raised $4,000 in cash and gifts for its annual toy drive, brightening the holiday mornings of 125 children.

A year later, with two days to go, organizer Beverly Robbins said the program had raised only half as much. Meanwhile, the list of needy children had grown by 60 percent to 200.

Robbins said the organization needed at least $1,000 to buy gifts for the final 61 children on its list.

She read through a list of appeals from families in need.

“I’m all alone and don’t make enough for Christmas . . .,” read one letter. “Ten-year-old daughter just had surgery,” said another. Unemployment was the common thread in so many of the appeals for help, Robbins said.

After a front-page story on Friday morning, Robbins’ despair quickly turned to wonder as donors streamed into the Lincoln Street shelter.

By Friday afternoon, the toy room was brimming with toys, games, clothing and gifts. And the charity that needed $1,000 suddenly had $17,000, enough to provide a head start on next year’s giving.

“I just can’t see kids go without Christmas,” one donor told the Sun Journal. “I just can’t.”

It has been a divisive year for our community, our state and our nation. Difficult economic times and sacrifice seem to have divided rather than united us.

With a stagnant economy and fewer government resources, the nation is being forced to redefine how it supports the neediest among us, the poor, the unemployed, the elderly and the refugees who come to our shores.

That polarizing debate will begin anew in 2012.

But it is reassuring to think, as we end one year and begin another, that when the need is clear, the good and generous among us are still more than willing to respond.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.