Thankful for so much despite COVID-19

The Thanksgiving holiday is traditionally a time to celebrate the end of the autumn harvest and the blessings we recognize in our lives. Sussex County’s farmers enjoyed a strong harvest of produce and grain crops this year, which helps ensure there will be food to fuel us through the colder and darker months ahead. For strong harvests, we are always thankful.

But this year we are thankful for so much more, especially for the healthcare workers, first responders and educators whose vital work has even greater significance in this time of COVID-19 negatively affecting all of us.

We’re thankful for the return of some of our interscholastic sports programs which, even as limited as they are, nonetheless give us a welcome sense of a return to normalcy.

With winter’s colder temperatures coming, we’re thankful for successful efforts to once again have the former Troop 7 on Route 1 available as a Code Purple homeless shelter.

We’re thankful for the food basket, food bank and church organizations – and all of their dedicated volunteers – who not only provided hundreds of families with the food needed to help celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving, but also continue efforts to see that no one in all of our Sussex communities faces hunger at any time of the year.

We’re thankful that a contentious election season is drawing to a close, and that a number of promising vaccine candidates are providing all of us with light at the end of this dark coronavirus tunnel.

We’re thankful that this 2020 year – which feels like one of the longest years ever – is nearing its end, that the shortest day of the year is less than a month away, and that the days will then begin lengthening and hopefully lead us into a more promising spring than was the case this year.

Finally, we’re thankful for this beautiful part of the world where we live, and for the efforts of so many groups and individuals to make it even better for all of us.