Helping others

Folks in Southeast Missouri have always been compassionate and willing to help their family, friends and neighbors when special needs arise. With warm weather comes a surge in outdoor fundraising events, all with the aim of making life better for someone else.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, for example, among the many special events were the "Pullin' for St. Jude" truck and tractor pull in Cape Girardeau, which raised money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Missouri Riders, a motorcycle group, raised money for veterans' care by visiting all seven of Missouri's veterans homes. The U.S. Wounded Soldier Foundation Golf Tournament raised money for supplies to be sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. And while the Teen Challenge International of Mid-America's annual strawberry festival isn't strictly a fundraiser, it brought considerable attention to the organization's efforts to rehabilitate drug and alcohol addicts and Teen Challenge's annual strawberry sales.

Anyone who is involved in organizing events like these knows how much work it takes to make them fun and successful at the same time. Most of these individuals go unnamed. So hats off to everyone who works so hard for such good causes.