I remember a long time ago, maybe 2007, we had a wicked bad ice storm more or less all throughout New England. At the time, I lived in Salem (New Hampshire -- the one with Canobie Lake, not the witches -- yes, I'm going to make that joke every time I mention Salem, so buckle in), and my grandparents lived the next street over.

The ice storm was so bad that A LOT of people lost power, including my grandparents. Thankfully, maybe because we were on a different circuit/power grid because of our apartment building, we never lost power. So my Mom and I scooped up my grandparents and had them stay with us.

Unfortunately, and I don't mean this to sound braggadocios, but it's more or less just fact -- not all elderly people are thought of by their family members as much and as well as my grandparents were.

Thankfully, there are people like the workers at Morningstar Stone and Tile in Topsham, Maine, that pick up that slack.

According to Channel 8 WMTW, a team of workers at Morningstar ended up teaming with the Maine Community Action Partnership to create the Morningstar Home Heating Relief Fund, which goes directly to helping seniors pay their heating bills. There's no application process or hoops to jump through with this -- the funds (which is made up of the total of all donations made, not just a proceed of them) go directly to the people who need help, right away.

Not to be corny, but just remember that 'tis the season of giving, and maybe you can give up that week of buying coffees or that one takeout meal you planned on next weekend and help someone who could really use your help staying warm in the cold weather, do just that.

Click here if you'd like to make a donation to the Morningstar Home Heating Relief Fund. And good on the workers at Morningstar for coming up with this idea and going full force. We need to get back to the days where we put other people first and looked out for each other first instead of just fully ourselves.

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