One of the things that I appreciate the most about this community is its giving spirit. Whether it's donating money or volunteering time to local non-profits or those spur of the moment collections for a person in the community in need … our community is there to give a helping hand.

For more than 200 years, The Star Democrat has been honored to do its part to help the communities it serves. Many of you know our largest giving effort, The Brighter Christmas Fund. For 30 years, this fund has raised more than $2.5 million and helped countless children around the Mid-Shore have a Brighter Christmas.

What you may not know is that every year The Star Democrat partners with hundreds of local groups and organizations to assist them with fund raising and increasing local awareness. In addition, our staff at The Star Democrat donates hundreds of hours in the community to do our part to lend a helping hand. It's a privilege for us at the paper to do our part by giving give back to the local communities we serve.

In today's edition you will see an advertisement highlighting the organizations that The Star Democrat has had the honor of partnering with over the past few months. You will also note a new logo in that advertisement that The Star Democrat is publicly launching today. The logo is a tree of hands.

This symbolic graphic represents the giving spirit we at The Star Democrat embrace with the local communities we serve to focus on lending a hand to those in need. This is the logo that will be used in the future when The Star Democrat partners with local organizations, and it will appear in all advertisements that are sponsored by us going forward. I hope when you see this logo in the future it reminds you of the local community giving spirit and The Star Democrat's efforts to lend a helping hand.

I invite you to check out a new page on our website at www.stardem.com/cares. This new page on our website will highlight the businesses, organizations and events sponsored by The Star Democrat. It will also provide contact information to request sponsorship.

In closing, I'd like to spotlight a phrase we at The Star Democrat have recently started using “Your community, Your Newspaper, Your Life.” This is more than a catch phrase. This phrase sums up our role in the local community. The Star Democrat has been a part of the community for more than 200 years and is probably one of the oldest continuing running businesses on the Eastern Shore. And I would bet, almost everyone reading this piece today has read their name … or the name of a friend or family member in the Star Democrat at some point. What is important to understand is that The Star Democrat is a time chronicle … of each of our lives and the community we love. From the birth notice … to the obituary and everything in between … The Star Democrat is there to record and publish the important events and the lasting memories of your lives. It's the reason our readers are so loyal to us … because our newspaper is your newspaper. You have a vested interest in us because we have a vested interest in you. That's what we really do for a living and why we do our part to “lend a helping hand.”