How can you help? One family’s simple plan
By Beth O'Connor
I have been blessed to be part of a large family and doubly blessed to have most of my large family living in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Over the years, we have all come "kicking and screaming" into the computer communication age. So as Easter approached this past spring, the e-mails started flying fast and furious about our upcoming big Easter dinner.
To make things easier for the family hosting the holiday, everyone brings covered dishes. It was at this time that my mother-in-law, Helen O'Connor, told us of the great need for food items at Be Concerned.
Mom has been a volunteer at Be Concerned for many years. She told us that like so many other assistance programs, Be Concerned was having a tough time collecting enough food to accommodate all the people seeking its help.
Mom asked that I e-mail all the families coming to Easter dinner asking if they would bring a couple of nonperishable items for Be Concerned. It wasn't hard to get the message out – it took about 2 minutes to put together an e-mail and with one push on the "send" button, it went out to the whole family. Just as I knew they would, everyone thought this was a great idea and wondered why we hadn't thought of it before. When we left after Easter dinner, there were enough grocery bags filled with canned goods, boxes of pasta and jars of spaghetti sauce to fill the trunk of Mom's car.
On the drive home, we talked about how easy it was to gather up the donations. It took only a few minutes to send out the message and it wasn’t hard for any of us to throw a few more groceries into our cars as we headed out to celebrate the holiday. To quote my mother-in-law: "If everyone gives a little, it adds up to a lot."
I continued to think about that message all week and came up with a plan. I sent another e-mail out to the family with a proposition. On the first Tuesday of each month, my husband, Doc, and I would drive to their houses and pick up any donations they had for Be Concerned. They could leave their donation on the porch so they didn't even have to be home when we came by. Mom volunteers at Be Concerned on Wednesdays, so she would deliver the food then.
So often, people want to do something to help but don't know what they can do. This was something so simple and yet so needed – what a great idea, we all agreed.
We have collected donations every month since Easter and it has worked out so well. I can't believe how easy it has been and how quickly the idea of giving has caught on. One of my nieces, Kristin Wilson, asked to put out a box at her workplace, Better Bodies. Her daughter Julia made a sign asking people to make donations for Be Concerned. They put the box by the front entrance to the gym and it has been filled to overflowing each month.
I share our story in hopes that others out there might see how easy it is to put together a simple donation plan like ours for Be Concerned.
My family is not much different from any other family. Most of us want to do something to help our neighbors in need. As Mom says, if we all give a little, we can make a big difference.
Beth O'Connor (right in photo), a Fort Wright resident, was inspired by her mother-in-law, Helen O'Connor (left in photo), a longtime volunteer, to collaborate on an ongoing family food drive for Be Concerned.