Need for support changes face of community

If you haven’t heard the call for money to support community events, you must not be reading e-mail or listening to your neighbors.

We’ve always had PTA membership drives, calls for sponsorship for sports teams and the broad range of philanthropies seeking support for their worthy causes.

But because of the economic situation, which is making life harder for our cities and school districts, the calls are coming more often.

We’ve been listening to the Campaign for Del Mar Shores efforts for a while as they try to raise $8.5 million to payoff the purchase of the old school site so it can be maintained for recreation and open space and a permanent home for the Winston School. They’ve got about $3 million left to go.

In our schools, the situation is a constant struggle, from teachers asking parents to fulfill “wish lists” just to get classroom supplies to foundations that are raising money to help as well.

We watched as Del Mar Union School District parents came up with almost $1.4 million to save the Extended Studies Curriculum and make sure their children had access to science and technology and arts and music offerings.

And don’t forget the Del Mar lifeguards who have turned to the community for help in replacing their aging headquarters or their Solana Beach counterparts who were the beneficiaries of an Oktoberfest last year to help them pay for new equipment.

It seems that each of these fundraisers are another sign of what’s ahead of us —needing to depend on each other to keep the things that give us a “community.”

The city and state budgets are in dire straits and are about to get worse: Witness a proposal to cut San Diego’s parks budget by 17 percent next year.

There’s no simple answer, other than sticking together and pitching in where we can. Maybe it’s a dollar here or a hour of volunteer work there. If we want a clean place to live that has the amenities that we like, we’re going to have to respond to the calls for support.

Pick a cause. Help at your child’s school or offer to drive a senior to a doctor’s appointment. Whatever it is, it’s community spirit that our country was built on. Let’s keep it alive.