Colquitt County is a giving community, and that’s good because it’s also a needful place.

A list of the community’s challenges could go on as long as you wanted it to: A 25 percent poverty rate. Drug abuse issues. Domestic violence. Health issues, both physical and mental.

But for every problem, individuals and groups in the community are trying to make things better.

Last year, The Observer tried an experiment.

For years around Christmastime, we’ve published a list of Christmas lights and other displays you could drive by to see. The list would run in every edition, growing as more and more people called in locations to add. Last year, we used the same format to highlight groups in need of donations or volunteers to help meet some of the community’s needs around the holiday.

We liked the results, but we learned we need to start earlier in the year.

So here it is Nov. 14, and we’re publishing the initial version of the list; click the link at right to see it. It starts off with the Children’s Cheer and Toy Shop and includes the Colquitt County Food Bank and a coat drive by the Moultrie Kiwanis Club.

We’re relying on you to let us know about these efforts — great and small. We need to know:

• The organization that’s doing it.

• Who or what they’re collecting for.

• What they need.

• What is the time frame for the collection.

• Contact information that we can publish so our readers can reach out to your group with questions or offers of help.

Help us connect the people with resources to share with the people who are working to meet our community’s needs. Please call Managing Editor Kevin Hall at 985-4545 or email him at kevin.hall@gaflnews.com to add to the list.