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A shoutout to Jennifer Burton, who is one of our page designers and who organizes a bake sale in the newsroom every year to raise money for Urban Ministry. People in the newsroom -- Journalists? Cooking? Uh-oh -- donated homemade and store-bought cookies, breads, pies, brownies, fudge and, even doggie snacks. The food was piled high on a couple of tables in the newsroom and everything was priced to sell.

(I brought brownies, but, fearing that my efforts would be deemed insufficient -- journalists are nothing if not insecure -- I supplemented them with some timely purchases at Cheesecakes by Alex.)

Jennifer's report: "In about 9 hours, we raised $600 for Greensboro Urban Ministry’s food bank. That far exceeds our total from last year (and it's gone up every year since we started this!). The bake sale would not be so successful without everyone’s generosity. It makes me proud that we are making a difference."

Me, too.

The bake sale is over, but you can still participate in the giving.

We don't cover our corporate self all that well. Many times, not well. When the corporate side invests in a community project -- think Festival of Lights or Kids Voting -- the news side doesn't necessary promote it prominently in the news columns.

So, you might ask, when you splash this story on the front page, what makes Operation Greensboro Cares different?

I was asked the same question in-house. Answer: It's a good cause during a time of great community need. With the economy faltering and people hurting, the community should -- and knowing Greensboro, will -- rally to help. The newspaper ought to crusade to help those among us who are hungry and homeless. It is a way to fulfill part of Finley Peter Dunne's call to "comfort the afflicted."

Would we do it if we weren't a major sponsor? That's a tougher one to answer. I hope that we would. The worthiness of the cause is certainly still the same.I hope we would not be slower off the mark, although I fear we would. In any case, I'm glad we're part of this fund-raising. We will be writing more about the need and where the money will go. I hope it helps.

Friday update: Of course, we could have crusaded this way. Just don't tell Allen.

The generous folks in the newsroom raised $1,021 this year for a variety of holiday charities for families and children.

I write about this every year so I won't describe the auction again.

I remain in awe of the folks here and their ability -- no, their insistence -- to dig deep to help those who are less fortunate. Their generosity remains one of the things about this place of which I'm most proud.

Today is one of those good days in the newsroom. (Good having nothing to do with journalism.) We are having a small bake sale to raise money for Urban Ministry.

As designer Jennifer Burton, who organizes the fund-raiser, wrote:

On an average day at the Greensboro Urban Ministry:

* 150 people registered in the Emergency Assistance Program
* 26 emergency food orders filled from the Food Bank
* 332 people fed a hot meal at Potter's House Community Kitchen

We don't even have to leave the building to get home-baked sweets. And if there's anything we like better than eating, it's eating and raising money at the same time.

Update: We also had one of our in-house auctions yesterday in which we sell all the free stuff companies send us for promotions. We raised $1,023 for charity. That makes about $3,000 this year!