For 109 years, Chattanoogans have opened their pocketbooks during the holiday season to help neighbors who may be struggling.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press collects money for the Neediest Cases Fund every year from Thanksgiving through New Year's, and the donated money is distributed by the United Way of Greater Chattanooga.
The fund dates back to a Christmas Day in 1911 when Adolph Ochs ate a turkey dinner and then took a stroll through New York City.
Ochs, the publisher of The New York Times and the former publisher of The Chattanooga Times, came across a ragged man who had just eaten Christmas dinner at the YMCA but had nowhere to sleep that night, according to an account in The New York Times. He handed the man a few dollars and his business card and told him to come see him about a job.
"Helping a stranger had given him a sense of satisfaction, and he wondered if one man's feeling might be the basis for a city's goodwill," the Times report states.
Ochs started the Neediest Cases campaign in December 1912, and two years later, he extended the program to Chattanooga.
The money our readers give to the Neediest Cases Fund stays in this community, helping people in Chattanooga and surrounding counties.
In recent years, it's helped:
› A former star athlete who suffered a traumatic brain injury in an automobile accident that caused memory loss and depression. The fund helped pay her rent and car insurance.
› A 26-year-old Chattanooga man who was living in a moldy apartment with no functioning heat, ventilation or air conditioning. The fund helped him pay a deposit on a new apartment.
› A woman who lost her rental home and everything she owned in a fire and was sleeping in her car or in a park. The fund helped her cover a deposit on a new place to live.
› A man who relied on a kerosene heater to warm his home but realized it was depleting oxygen levels in his home. The fund paid for an electrician to service his HVAC unit.
We're proud to carry on the tradition Ochs started so many years ago and privileged to share the stories of how you're helping neighbors in need.
This holiday season, please consider helping our neighbors with a donation to the Neediest Cases Fund.
Alison Gerber is the editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Reach her at agerber@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6408.