With the holiday less than a week away, if a person can’t look around LaGrange and Troup County and find something good done for someone else, someone’s just not looking very hard. With that in mind, from the man at Chick-fil-A who bought a couple’s lunch to larger, community-wide efforts, we’d like to take this time before the madness of last-minute Christmas preparations to salute some of those local heroes.

n A salute to the more than a dozen local restaurants who chose to participate in “Dine United,” donating a portion of Thursday’s sales to the United Way of West Georgia. The needs of the 29 member agencies are never more apparent at this time of year and especially this year, with the sinking economy. Rather than just write the United Way a check, which may have been smaller than they would have liked, these restaurant owners decided to roll up their sleeves and take part in a true community effort. They have embraced the United Way’s new mantra: Give, Advocate, Volunteer. Live United.

n To the co-workers of LaGrange resident, Lt. Col. Joe Brazell at the Army Forces Command Plans Division at Fort McPhearson. His son, Spc. Joseph Brazell, is one of thousands of our military men and women serving in Iraq. The colonel’s son’s request for a Christmas tree sparked an “over and above” effort by his co-workers. They shipped books, movies, candy, cocoa, disposable cameras and other goods to Brazell, along with four special gifts for his four best “battle buddies.”

How wonderful it must have been for those soldiers to see such a caring effort from so far away.

n And speaking of remembering, kudos to the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce and Charlie Joseph’s restaurants for choosing to honor longtime former employee Clifford Russell, who died in 1998 on the annual Christmas ornament. “Everyone still misses him,” his co-workers say.

Only in a town such as LaGrange could a restaurant counter man be remembered in such a special, caring way.

n Would you like to be worthy of the next “Salute”? There’s an opportunity just around the corner. Donations of food, money and volunteers still are needed for the “Up All Night Holiday Meal Program” Christmas Day at Cannon Street Elementary School. The meal program is in its 18th year and feeds the hungry and homeless on holidays. Like other charitable events, however, donations are down and needs are up with the struggling economy. Donations may be dropped off at Lakes-Dunson-Robertson Funeral Home, Parmer Brothers Grocery, Roots & Branches Beauty Salon or TV33.