This is how it is supposed to be. Selflessness, volunteerism, people organizing to help others is sustainable. Enthusiasm for good deeds does not wane or gently fade until it disappears, as it often does in some other place. It doesn’t happen here.

So why is the fourth Saturday in October so important in North Central Washington? Why does Make a Difference Day, the national day of doing good, grab our attention and hold it so strongly? Why, year after year for more than two decades, have so many people chosen this day to come out to help their neighbors, to simply make a difference?

The fourth Saturday comes. Make a Difference Day is this Saturday, Oct. 22. On that day thousands of people will set out with the deliberate intention of doing something good, doing something that will help someone else, to participate in a project to make our community a better place or make someone in need a little more comfortable. There is no diminishment of enthusiasm we can detect. Make a Difference Day is a phenomenon, a wonderful exception to the rule. For that we give thanks.

The evidence is clear. It was 21 years ago that USA Weekend Magazine gave its first national Make a Difference Day award to Wenatchee for its conspicuous selflessness. The city has been honored several times since, but in 2010 Wenatchee again was recognized with a Make a Difference Day Encore Award, which came with a $10,000 grant. In that year, 20 years after the first noteworthy event, more than 8,000 people participated in more than 40 Make a Difference Day projects, organizers reported. Several of those projects saw participation increase dramatically. Everything from trail maintenance to river cleanup to home repair for fire victims to very creative fundraising efforts drew attention. It worked. Volunteers made this community a better place.

This Saturday, it comes again. The success of Make a Difference Day requires a simple philosophical commitment by you. “See a need, do a good deed,” is this year’s slogan. “Spend time Saturday doing a good deed, large or small, that makes a difference in our community or in the lives of the people in it.” See the website at www.wenatcheemkdd.com and click on “projects list.” There you will find information on dozens of Make a Difference Day projects that could use your help or gifts. See this Thursday’s Neighbors section in The Wenatchee World for a list of ideas. There are far too many to list here, but needless to say there is something for everyone. You can help clean up the Salvation Army Lodge, help beautify the north entrance to the city with Operation Petunia, pull weeds in city parks, share with Share a Bear, donate cleaning supplies to Lighthouse Ministries, donate soccer equipment to Headers for Haiti, donate a bike to Bikes 4 Kids, buy a barbecue dinner for New Life Adoptions, clean a sculpture with Art on the Avenues, work on trails on the Sage Hills, garden at Ohme Gardens ... it’s a long list.

It’s all there for you, to do something that adds to the great significance of the day. Make a Difference Day is not exactly an institution, but it is a tradition that grows stronger and more important with the passing years. Wenatchee would be much poorer in spirit without it. The fourth Saturday in October was never so important. Keep it up.

This is the opinion of The Wenatchee World and its Editorial Board: Publisher Rufus Woods, Editor Cal FitzSimmons, Chief Financial Officer Janine Bakken and Editorial Page Editor Tracy Warner.