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SPARE the guilt trip. No one wants to listen to another you-owe-them diatribe about the crime of fortune, the sin of hard-earned comforts. That’s a false, sleight-of-hand way to drive people to charity.

Poverty is no stranger and less of a surprise – folks avoid its gaze on the walk to work, the fact that it sleeps in the backseat of the car down the street, that it waits with palm upturned on the way out of the mall.

What people need, in this season of opposites – warmth and shivering, togetherness and alienation – is a reminder that we’re all part of an extended human family. We’re all cousins, stuck together in the same mortal coil.

So get off your butt and try helping “the family” for a change; there are so many things to be done, and they can even be fun.

Gonzaga University senior Ashley Thayer found something fun and fulfilling to do. She’s volunteering at Santa Express, a “kids-only” store on the second level of River Park Square.

To clarify, Santa Express isn’t a toy store; it’s a kids-only store.

“Children go and find presents for their parents or whoever they’re shopping for,” Thayer said.

Kids ditch their adults at the door, while volunteers pair off with the 4- to 12-year-olds and help them shop. All proceeds go to the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, which helps prevent child abuse and neglect in the Spokane area.

The Salvation Army needs help, too. The organization has a Safe Center Homeless Shelter and a Transitional Housing Program, and they’re helping out with the Christmas Bureau and more.

Peeps can even sign up to be – yup, that’s right – Salvation Army Red Kettle bell-ringers.

You know, the cheery folks currently ringing their little bells outside just about every building anywhere. That’s what 20-year-old Jonathan Williams did in late November with about nine other guys, and they turned it into a spectacle.

“We were ringing the bells, and we also brought out some instruments and guitars – kind of a Salvation Army Brass Band kind of thing,” Williams said. “We were having fun singing carols and stuff. We had a guy in a Santa suit, and another guy in a Salvation Army uniform.

“We had a great day; we raised almost $400.”

Actually, Christy Markham, a development associate for Salvation Army, said Williams and his crew made precisely $374.69.

“And that was just seven hours, and not the full 11,” Markham said, referring to the fact that most bell-ringers spend 11 hours on the job, and average $100 to $300. So approach and attitude helps.

Williams had such a blast ringing the bell that he and his crew plan to do it again in the near future.

But maybe carols and bells aren’t your idea of charitable fun.

Well, try the old standby: Go the food route.

The Women and Children’s Free Restaurant, a restaurant and makeshift “grocery store” set up in the basement of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church (1620 N. Monroe St.) might suit your fancy.

On Tuesday and Thursday nights, the room converts to a spot where women and their children of minor age can get free, home-

cooked meals. Friday means take out, and a large room in the basement is converted to a free grocery store with food provided by Second Harvest Food Bank.

Washing dishes and helping with other tasks at the Free Restaurant gives 27-year-old Marsha Moore a sense of accomplishment.

“It’s fun here. There are people out there that need help,” she said. “I think people sometimes don’t understand that they’re needed.”

Shelters and soup kitchens pepper the Spokane area – a list of them can be found on www.spokanehomeless.org, or check the previous page for a list of places that might need your volunteer or financial help over the holiday season and year-round.

Still wondering why you should bother? Kari Reese, public relations coordinator for Union Gospel Mission (1224 E. Trent Ave.), offered a poignant anecdote:

“This guy was picking up starfish along the ocean shore, because the tide was going out and they were going to die,” she said. “He was picking them back up and throwing them back into the ocean. A woman came up and asked him, ‘Do you really think that matters, with all the thousands of starfish?’ He replied, ‘It mattered to that one.’”