This area's compassion for the less fortunate among us has always shown the brightest around the Christmas season, particularly through the support given The Sun Santa Fund and WCAP's Salvation Army Radiothon.
We're always amazed by the generosity generated through events held to raise funds for these two noble causes.
The Sun Santa Fund's mission since 1988 has been to help financially struggling Greater Lowell families be able to both put a proper holiday meal on the table and to have Christmas presents to give to their children.
And for a quarter of a century, WCAP's Salvation Army Radiothon has become the preeminent fundraiser for the Salvation Army's Lowell chapter, which also serves several area communities.
In no particular order, we'd like to highlight the outstanding efforts performed by a few longtime Sun Santa Fund contributors, and those who made WCAP's Radiothon another smashing success:
* The Blue Shamrock was a busy scene the evening of Dec. 6 as guests continually flowed into that Market Street establishment in downtown Lowell with donations of money and toys for former state Sen. Steve Panagiotakos' 28th annual benefit party for The Sun Santa Fund and It's All About the Kids Foundation.
While always a major Sun Santa Fundraiser, this year's event outdid itself.
Panagiotakos informed the newspaper the next day that Friday night's combination of charity and good cheer raised a record amount of $40,745 -- and counting -- for The Sun Santa Fund.
That surpassed the previous record of $36,402 set last year.
"That is an astounding number that shows exceptional generosity," Lowell Sun Charities President Kevin Coughlin told the newspaper. "It really demonstrates the leadership of the community throughout all the towns and the city ... coming together and understanding the mission of The Sun Santa Fund."
* And though for the first time it fell short of the Blue Shamrock, Lowell General Hospital's Themed Basket Raffle turned in another spectacular performance, bringing in $40,000 this year to benefit The Sun Santa Fund.
It's something that's become second nature to organizers of this 21st annual event.
An astounding 40,000 $1 tickets were purchased for the chance to win one of 19 raffle baskets donated by the staff of the various departments of Lowell General Hospital, listed online from Nov. 22 to Dec. 3.
This year's raffle brought the total amount raised through the event's 21 years to $1.35 million.
"We know how blessed we are at Lowell General Hospital. We are blessed as a team to work with each other; we are blessed to provide care and services to our community, and we know we are fortunate people," said Lowell General Hospital President Amy Hoey. "... This is a great opportunity for us to lean in and give back, and I can't tell you how excited our departments get to put these amazing baskets together."
* The Littleton Police Department was a bustling scene on Dec. 14, with vehicles steadily flowing through to drop off donations of toys and gifts destined for financially struggling families.
The toys and monetary donations, benefitting The Sun Santa Fund and Toys for Tots, represented a partnership between state Rep. Jim Arciero and Littleton Police that started during the pandemic.
Arciero, who's been collecting donations for Sun Santa for 15 years, has joined forces with Police Chief Matthew Pinard for the last five.
Pinard said combining the respective donation drives has contributed to a more successful outcome.
"...People don't want to spend two or three hours, they want to come through, drop the toys off, say thank you and move on," said Pinard. "That box truck is almost full... It's unbelievable. The generosity of some people is incredible, I love it."
Though this combined event marked the last major effort of the 2024 Sun Santa season, there's still plenty of time to donate.
Monetary donations can be made at lowellsun.com/sun-santa, or by mail to The Sun Santa Fund, P.O. Box 2439, Lowell, MA 01851.
And evidence of those individual acts of kindness can be seen in the list of donors published in the newspaper, which continue to flow in, boosting that total to $33,857 and counting.
* And it was another record-breaking day for WCAP's Salvation Army Radiothon.
Ringmaster and WCAP Saturday Morning host Warren Shaw, who's been associated with this one-day fundraising marathon from its inception, announced on his Dec. 14 program that this Dec. 7 extravaganza broke another record by taking in an astounding $240,000 -- and counting.
Nearly one half of that total came from one event, Mike and Cindy Kuenzler's Four Oaks Country Club Comedy Night, the proceeds of which came in the form of a check for $110,000.
Shaw and his complement of battle-hardened volunteers oversaw the proceedings, which also generated $25,000 from the Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro firefighters' boot-drive competition, thousands more from an online auction, and $10,700, courtesy of a check from Kevin Durkin and friends in memory of Ralph Richardson.
We're certain we can express a collective thank-you from these two extraordinary charitable endeavors to all those who contributed to their success.