We’ve got a short exercise for those of you who gave to the Bellringer Fund during the 2005 holiday fund-raising drive.

Extend one arm above your head.

Bend at the elbow.

Now, give yourself a pat on the back.

Repeat.

For the 53rd year in a row, the Raab Foundation and the Poulsbo Noon Lions rang the bell for those in need in our community. And once again the North Kitsap community responded with open hearts and open wallets.

The gesture itself speaks volumes about this community we live in. It would be so easy to turn away … to ignore the need … to say you have your own problems.

But you didn’t.

Instead, when you were turning up your thermostat on those chilly winter nights, you remembered that there are those who are in the cold.

When you were cooking up that special family meal, you remembered there are those for whom the pantry is bare.

When you got a prescription or flu shot to beat those bugs, you remembered there are those for whom life-saving medication is a luxury.

Ralph Waldo Emerson has a famous quote that ends with the words, “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. That is the meaning of success.”

Some of you gave thousands or hundreds. One of our favorite Good Samaritans out there brought in $1.85. It doesn’t matter how much — it matters that you realize the true value of a community is not measured in dollars and cents but in the compassion of its inhabitants.

In our eyes, every single person who gave to Bellringer is a success.