Needy Families

The annual gift giveaway at St. John Roman Catholic parish in Westminster yesterday made Christmas wishes come true for more than 150 needy Carroll County families. Wrapped packages held the promise of toys, clothing and groceries. Among the gifts were bicycles, scooters, skates and video games. "My son asked for a bike, but I didn't think he would get one," said Cynthia, 42, loading a 10-speed into the trunk of her car with help from parish volunteers. "I am going to hide this somewhere and he will be so surprised."

The annual gift giveaway at St. John Roman Catholic parish in Westminster yesterday made Christmas wishes come true for more than 150 needy Carroll County families. Wrapped packages held the promise of toys, clothing and groceries. Among the gifts were bicycles, scooters, skates and video games. "My son asked for a bike, but I didn't think he would get one," said Cynthia, 42, loading a 10-speed into the trunk of her car with help from parish volunteers. "I am going to hide this somewhere and he will be so surprised."

BOSTON - If there was a theme song to this passing autumn, I guess it was "America the Vulnerable." We were struck, out of the blue, by a reminder of how life can end in the middle of a phone call or a cup of coffee or a business trip. The difference between being at home or at Ground Zero could be as arbitrary as changing a flight, dropping a kid at school, or canceling a breakfast meeting. There was nothing really new in this refrain of life's capriciousness and human vulnerability.

In Baltimore County Murder charge filed against man accused in infant son's death TOWSON - A 34-year-old man accused of injuring his 3-week-old son was charged in jail with first-degree murder yesterday after the infant died at Johns Hopkins Hospital, county police reported. Ryan Anzael Backmon had been hospitalized early Dec. 11 after he was injured at his mother's Middle River home in the 600 block of Lanoitan Road, where the father, Antonio Anzael Backmon, was visiting, according to police spokesman Bill Toohey.

SHE'S A 65-year-old mother and grandmother supporting a grown son with medical problems and a little granddaughter. Thoughts of how she would get through the holiday season financially have been keeping her awake at night. That was until she found Mount Airy Net. "It's just so hard, especially with children," said the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous. "Just the thought [of the holidays] has caused so much stress. I've been upset and crying and crying. Five hundred dollars [from Social Security]

SUDLERSVILLE -- Gloria Luster, 76, has bad knees, a bad heart and no money to spare, but that doesn't stop her from spending all morning in somebody else's spinach patch on a recent Thursday, gathering food for the poor. Sighing as she stoops, Luster sweeps the deep green leaves into her arms and stuffs them into a mesh bag. As she works, the spinach rustles like sails in a light wind. "Can't you see the spinach salad, with the cucumber and the onion and the vinaigrette?" she asks, all but smacking her lips.

CHANGING THE LIFE of a Carroll County family can be as easy as donating that old clunker sitting in the driveway. Vehicles for Change, a charity that has been providing cars for needy families since October 1999, recently gave away its 152nd car in Carroll County. And it's looking for more. "I know of no one else who is putting these cars back on the street," said Marty Schwartz, executive director of the program, which sells the cars to families for a fraction of their cost. "Other organizations may take a donated car and sell it for a couple of hundred bucks, but we're using them to change an entire family's life."

S.E.R.V.E., a Western Maryland College student community service organization, holds its biggest annual fund-raiser today, a silent and live auction to help pay for home-repair projects in Appalachia. With a bona fide auctioneer, Students Engaged in Rural Volunteer Experiences will sell a host of items, ranging from gift certificates to artwork, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Decker Student Center. Proceeds will help cover the $185 per student cost of a trip March 17 to Dungannon, Va. "It's absolutely vital," Jeremiah Kelly, S.E.R.

The bitter cold of a December morning did little to chill the enthusiasm of a group of Clarksville Elementary School children and mothers as they loaded nearly 255 packages - some containing several gifts - into the back of two minivans and a sport utility vehicle. Choruses of "This is fun" were heard from children and mothers as they carted, carried and hauled brightly wrapped gifts from a storage closet to the waiting vehicles. The children giggled and exclaimed over the boxes. "Here comes a really big one," called one. "We're playing hooky," another said jokingly because he got a respite from class to load the presents.

HALFWAY THROUGH this area's biggest annual holiday food drive, Marylanders again have shown their generosity to the less fortunate. Contributions to the Maryland Food Bank's Good Neighbor Food and Funds Drive (formerly the Bags of Plenty campaign) are just about on pace. The food bank has collected half of what it needs to feed needy families, thanks to a strong collection during the Thanksgiving season. But it's the final push in the next few weeks that will help stock food pantries through the winter.