Also included in The Connection this week are stories and listings of local organizations that help local families in need.
Volunteer Fairfax is seeking help in its effort to provide 2,000 backpacks filled with books and toys to young children in seven Fairfax County elementary schools this holiday season. Donations and volunteers are needed now.
These are schools with high poverty rates — well over 50 percent of the students at these schools are poor enough to receive free or reduced-price meals at school — a measure of significant poverty.
The program, "A Celebration of Giving and Sharing," helps show children that there are people who care about them, simply because they are children.
Volunteer Fairfax also mobilizes hundreds of volunteers who help stuff the backpacks and deliver them to the schools and are present in the classrooms. This Celebration of Giving and Sharing helps develop self-esteem, literacy skills and the seeds of giving and sharing in tomorrow's volunteers.
Please answer appeals from charities who have come to rely on your support, and get out and volunteer.
Most editions of the Connection contain stories this week about local nonprofit groups that provide help to families during the holiday season, and the organizations featured are by no means the only ones helping local families.
To join the "Celebration of Giving and Sharing" and to learn about other volunteer opportunities in Fairfax County, please visit www.volunteerfairfax.org.
Here is a partial listing of local organizations that help the needy, during the holidays and the rest of the year as well.
* United Community Ministries, 703-768-7106
* Food for Others, 703-207-9173
* Ecumenical Community Helping Others (ECHO) in Springfield, 703-569-9160
* Good Shepherd in the Route 1 area, 703-768-9404
* Our Daily Bread, Central Fairfax, 703-273-8829
* Lorton Community Action Center, 703-339-5161
* Koinonia Foundation, 703-971-1991