On Monday, Jim and I will don our winter hats and gloves and hit Chatham's streets for another year of No Child Without a Christmas.

On Monday, Jim and I will don our winter hats and gloves and hit Chatham’s streets for another year of No Child Without a Christmas.

We, with friends and family, have been representing the Kent Historical Society at the Chatham Goodfellows’ Porchlight Campaign for many years. We’re always astounded at the warm welcome from folks we visit, even though many, new to Chatham, have never heard of the Goodfellows.

In this age of globalism, it’s rare and heartening to find something relatively local like the Goodfellows. Many who live east of Chatham-Kent haven’t heard of this charitable organization.

It began in Detroit in 1914, when James J. Brady and his old Newsboys decided to raise money and collecting goods to ensure needy area kids aged four to 13 could celebrate Christmas. Their efforts continued through the Depression and both world wars, and today, they help more than 35,000 kids at yuletide.

It wasn’t........

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