By Tamma Plymesser –

If you watch the news (which I do with my mother, every evening at six o’clock the dial gets turned to channel 9) you can begin to get a very bleak opinion of our world today.
Trucks are driven into busy shopping centers, a man, impatient because the car in front of him is going too slow, jumps out and shoots into the car killing a three-year-old.
To a lesser extent, there are stories of delivery drivers carelessly throwing fragile packages over a fence, thieves stealing packages from porches and even Christmas decorations from the yard.  Every story seems to illustrate how mean and evil people are today.  But before you get depressed about the state of the world, let me tell you what I encounter daily that restores my faith in the human race, especially now during the Christmas season.
Not a week goes by, often not a day goes by, where there is not at least one person who comes into the Pregnancy Resource Center to bring a donation.  It may be some used baby clothes or baby equipment they wanted to put to good use, or perhaps a pack or two of diapers.  Maybe it is a bag full of goodies for our newborn layette, or a basket full of bottles filled with change.  Perhaps it is a check with an unexpected donation.  Whatever it is, I know it is a sacrifice for the giver.
The used items could have been sold for their own benefit.  The money for the diapers and other items could have been used for their own families, and the cash donations might represent money that could have been saved for a family vacation or other luxury.  But, instead, the giver decided to bring it to the PRC A Place of Hope where they know it will be a blessing to a young woman going through an unexpected pregnancy, a family trying to live on one salary so the mom can stay home with the children, or a single mom struggling to raise her children on her own with no support from anyone, maybe even a single dad trying to do the same.
During the Christmas season my heart is especially touched.  Day after day, gifts were brought in and laid at the manger in honor of the one whose birth we celebrate, gifts that will be given to a baby in need here in Brown County.
And let’s not forget the children who will wake up on Christmas morning to gifts under the tree when the tree might have been empty. Without the generosity of the good people of Brown County, these children might have had nothing for Christmas.
Those who helped included a church who added PRC families to their “Angel Tree,” an American Legion who carried in bags of toys, families who adopted a family to Christmas shop for, and a woman who came in and wrote a check to buy gifts for PRC client families. I am deliberately not naming names, because I know they did not do it to be recognized, but out of love and the generosity of their hearts.
These people from here in Brown County restore my faith in humanity.  There are people who care, there are people who love, there are generous people who will sacrifice for the sake of others.  On behalf of our clients, thank you Brown County for your loving, generous hearts.

Tamma Plymesser is the executive director of the Pregnancy Resource Center – A Place of Hope and can be reached by calling 937-378-6853.