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Giving Tuesday lived up to its name!

Northeast Michigan, you did yourself proud this past Tuesday — or should I say this past Giving Tuesday, which falls on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Locally, it is spearheaded by the Community Foundation of Northeast Michigan, held in conjunction with the Community Foundations for North Central Michigan, the Straits, and Iosco County.

This year, the Northeast Michigan foundation had over 60 organizations listed on their nonprofit page.

Giving Tuesday is a 24-hour period during which donors give to their organization of choice with online or in-person donations. Organizers are still busy tallying the totals for each recipient, as well as a grand total for the day, but it is safe to assume that the better part of $200,000 was raised in those 24 hours.

Hundreds of donations flooded in, which says a lot about the people we call our neighbors.

Folks, I don’t have to tell you these are troubling times, as we still are trying to recoup from the personal and economic damages COVID-19 released on all of us.

Yet the money poured in, not from just your wallet, credit card, or bank account, but from your hearts.

If it sounds like I am amazed, it’s because I AM amazed … at the generosity our Northeast Michigan community continues to practice. This is plain and simple people helping people, no government involved, no arguing politicians, no finger-pointing or biased news influence, just one person helping out another. And … isn’t it grand?!

On a personal note, I am fortunate to be involved with one of those 60-plus nonprofit organizations, the Hubbard Lake Community Association, which exists solely for the purpose of improving the Hubbard Lake community.

For over 15 years, the association has been trying to raise funds to build a new community center. It became even more important after suffering a lot of building damage on the old hall, caused by broken water pipes. Minimal repairs have been made, but the fact is the old building has outlived its usefulness.

Then, 2021 rolled around. A membership drive landed us with more than a hundred new members. Generous individuals were making sizable donations. Our annual Gold Tournament fundraiser set an all-time record, as we reached over $450,000 of our million-dollar goal.

Then, Giving Tuesday rolled around.

Well, fellow Hubbard Lakers, you are an amazing community, and have reaffirmed my decision to retire here. I have been fortunate to live in other communities that were generous, too, but there is a spirit that inhabits Hubbard Lakers, a spirit that many longtime residents either inherited or grew up with. Childhood memories burned deep into your experiences handed down by parents and grandparents. The spirit is not only obvious, it’s contagious.

Newcomers like me and others I have met quickly become infected with that spirit of community, and it runs the shoreline, whether from the North End, Eastbay, the Southside, or West Shore.

And that spirit of love for Hubbard Lake showed itself again on Giving Tuesday.

No, I don’t yet have the totals until the Community Foundation gets all the ducks counted, but I know this: You were generous, and the Board of Directors for the Hubbard Lake Community Association thanks each and every one of you. We’ll be in touch.

And that is only one story from the over 60 other nonprofit organizations involved this past Tuesday. I hope their critical needs were met, as well — and, from what I hear, the chances are good they were met. The common thread with all of those groups is improving the quality of life in our neck of the woods, which is only possible by big-hearted people I am glad to call my neighbors.

Northeast Michigan, puff your chest out a little bit today, and pat yourself on the back just one time, for Giving Tuesday revealed what we are truly made of, and we all should be proud.

Finally, thank you to the Northeast Community Foundation for carrying the water on this one. I have saved the loudest applause for you. Keep up the good work.

Feel free to share stories of generosity you have witnessed with me, no matter how small and insignificant or large and magnificent, at gregawtry@awtry.com.

Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.

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