Last year before we kicked off The Empty Stocking Fund, officials with the Department of Social Services made a plea: They said that while it was great that during 2014 the fund had provided Christmas for about 1,000 children, another 1,000 or so did not benefit.

There wasn’t enough money.

The staff at the DSS do the hard part, screening the applicants and then making sure the $50 vouchers get to the families in time for them to do the shopping. But it is also up to the staff at DSS to answer the phone calls from the parents of children who were too far down the list and to tell them the money has run out. That is the hardest part —and not something they enjoy.

They asked us to essentially try harder, a charge we took seriously. So we started the campaign a little bit earlier in 2015, and we also asked the school system to have individual schools compete against each other to see which ones could raise the most money, and those would be rewarded with a page 1A story.

It worked.

With the public schools chipping in more than $11,000, last year the fund raised enough to serve all 1,383 children deemed eligible, with a few dollars that carried over to this year. It was just the second time since 1996 the fund served every child deemed eligible.

We knew a repeat performance would be difficult in the wake of Matthew’s flooding for several reasons, but the following two were the most obvious. People have been asked to support other charitable causes, and getting food, water and shelter to people made homeless by bad weather is more important than a $5 gift under a tree — even for a needy child. Also, the county schools this year were not in a position to help, scrambling as the system was to find displaced students and get them back in the classes. So while we typically get donations from schools, so far this year that has not happened.

But we also thought there might be fewer children to serve, mainly because people were otherwise occupied and parents might have difficulty getting to the DSS to get their children registered. We were wrong.

The DSS found 1,435 children who were qualified, meaning we would need $73,250 to serve them all. Our plans are to stop taking donations a week from today, and right now we have collected just $14,930.

We are aware of several large contributions that will be coming soon, but the task of raising $73,250 seems too tall. That is only a reason to try harder.

We bring our plea today for donations off of page 1A and to page 4A, hoping that it might reach a few more people. We simply ask that you dig into your wallet or pocketbook as deeply as your situation allows and make a donation. We implore churches, local businesses and civic groups to make a donation — and we hope to hear from some schools as well.

Remember, ever single penny that is donated reaches the children. There is not a single dollar that goes to administrative costs, not at the Department of Social Services, and certainly not at The Robesonian.

So we have a week to check as many children off of this long list as possible. Information on how to donate can be found today on page 1A in the daily accounting of the fund’s progress. We hope you will come see us.