Nona Nelson

Roanoke Times newsroom manager/Books page editor/Happy Wag blogger Nona Nelson shares today’s post:

Every work day during the month of December, I get to experience grace and goodwill first hand.

Monday through Friday, I open the daily envelope stuffed with donor forms to The Roanoke Times’ Good Neighbors Fund drive, and as I prepare the list of donors that will appear in the next day’s newspaper, I see firsthand how generous and loving the people of this area can be.

So many groups, families and individuals set aside part of their holiday budget to help people in need. Many of the donations are given in tribute and memory of loved ones. Many are in honor of friends, family and neighbors, often in lieu of small gifts or cards.

Many are just given out of the desire to help people in our own community. All are appreciated.

We are reaching out to the community to meet some of these generous folks.

The merry ladies pictured below are part of the Thursday Lunch Club, a group of close friends that have been meeting for more than 45 years and have been making a group donation to the Good Neighbors Fund every year since the drive’s beginning. The ladies believe that they are among the first group donors in the campaign’s history.

If your group or business makes a donation to The Good Neighbors Fund, please email us a photo to news@roanoke.com.

You can make an online donation here.

And if you have any suggestions on how we could better promote Good Neighbors in our community, on the website or through social media, please leave them below. We’d love to hear your ideas!

Members of the Thursday Lunch Club: First row (from left): Barbara Garner, Ruby Shepherd, Martha Whitesell and Claudyne Judy. Back row (from left): Kay Lanter, Pat Kuehn, Betty Phelps and Helen Hall. Photo by Danielle Dunaway / The Roanoke Times