For many of us, the holidays bring warm feelings of time spent with loved ones, special gifts, good food and a re-connection with our faith.

But for many others, the same time of year can be far less pleasant. Those who are grieving the loss of a loved one, those who have been abused and those who simply don’t have the means to enjoy an abundant Christmas can find the holidays are more difficult than any other time of year.

The Christmas spirit is all about helping others. Fortunately, there are many avenues Chilton County residents can take to do just that.

The Clanton Advertiser hopes to connect those who are willing to help with those who need help through a series of stories informing our readers about various local programs that provide for people in need. These stories will educate readers about the programs and provide details about how to get involved.

Several such stories have already published online, including a story about Child Protect posted Thursday and a story about Operation: Santa Claus posted Wednesday. Also, there was a story posted to ClantonAdvertiser.com on Friday about the Salvation Army being in need of bell ringers. These kinds of stories are expected of a community newspaper this time each year, but we thought it would be helpful for our readers to point out that these stories will be appearing regularly. We also want to encourage our readers to let us know if there is a particular program in Chilton County that we haven’t touched on. Email me at stephen.dawkins@clantonadvertiser.com with suggestions.

We will continue publishing stories about ways to help on a regular basis through the holiday season. Of course, the effort to do good never ends, and so there will always be more stories like these.

We want to help everyone in Chilton County have a Merry Christmas.

–Stephen Dawkins is managing editor of The Clanton Advertiser. He can be reached at stephen.dawkins@clantonadvertiser.com.