It is not exactly an easy thing the Ashe Medical Assistance Program is asking use to do, but it is a way that many of us can do a great deal.

The organization program, an arm of Ashe County Healthy Carolinians and Ashe Memorial Hospital, is looking for 2,300 people to donate $20 each. The money will fund medication assistance to almost 800 needy neighbors.

Any of these recipients have not asked for their plight. They have not asked to be sick. They have not asked to be out of work.

Many are caught in a rapidly increasing insurance premium, market and declining wages.

Many can not function without their medication.

No one in Ashe County has gone untouched by the economic woes. Investment portfolios have serious declined.

Some which were thought to fund a decent retirement, have completely disappeared at least for the time being.

Many among us face reduced work hours and pay cuts. Even the gainfully employed have felt the pinch but are not facing the choice of groceries or medication like a good many other Ashe countians. Some may last for a tie without medication then fall victim to the ailment perhaps rendering them in worse condition, unable to care for children, unable to recover ad work another day in the future, Potentially they could cost the community or the state much more than the price of a prescription.

In the scheme of things $20 is not a lot of money for many of us. It is something we can do, something we should do.

Contact Nancy Kautz, Shelly Elliot or Beth Rodriguez at 982-6000 to take action.