My younger son, a child with development delays, snuggled in next to me at church on Sunday, smiled and whispered, "Margi, why are you so soft?"

Pastries.

It's a good time to be soft on the inside as well. Charity, food and the holidays are a timeless combination, and people's generosity never ceases to amaze me, especially when it's practiced on an everyday basis.

I received a phone call a couple of weeks ago from a gentleman who wanted to point out that those people who dedicate their time year-round to assisting others, via programs such as Meals on Wheels, should get special props.

Absolutely. There's a special place in heaven for those folks, because many of us can't do all that we'd like to do, and there are those people who never think to do anything.

So think about it. Be a softie.

I can attest personally to the generosity and hard work of parents facing illness or special challenges with their children. They move heaven and Earth with their strong wills and never forget the people who help them.

Stephanie Walker of Mt. Lebanon is one of those parents, and her work on a new cookbook will help other parents. Her son, Ryan, 2, suffered from kidney failure when he was 10 weeks old and required the transplant of a kidney that she donated.

While his new kidney is working fine, he has feeding issues and so receives daily medical and child care at Child's Way at The Children's Home and Lemieux Family Center in Friendship.

Child's Way provides skilled nursing and developmental services to medically fragile children.

Mrs. Walker says the facility has been a godsend for her and her husband, Erin. Both work full time, she in recruiting at the Bank of New York Mellon, and he with the technology group in the Upper St. Clair School District.

Child's Way "allows me to continue to work. I would have otherwise had to quit my job, sell my house and move in with my parents.

"I can go to work every day and know that [Ryan] is receiving full care," both medically and developmentally.

So grateful is she for the program that, she says, when it came time to give back, she wanted to make sure others who need the care can get it.

Pam Schanwald, chief executive officer of The Children's Home, says that while insurance covers medical care for Child's Way clients, it does not cover the day-care portion.

At $32 per day, the program's day care fee is comparable to others, she says, but, especially with families dealing with medical and equipment expenses necessitated by their child's illnesses, it can be beyond their reach.

Each year $150,000 is raised to provide day-care scholarships. Mrs. Walker will assist in raising that this year with her just-published "Cookbook for a Cause."

The recipes come from family and friends who cooked for the Walkers when Ryan was ill, she said.

"Between my love of food and all the food we were given, this just seemed to be a perfect way of getting [the Child's Way] message across," Mrs. Walker said.

She compiled 200 recipes, a neighbor coordinated graphics that include artwork from Child's Way children, and the Walkers put up $5,800 to publish the book. Sold for $10 each, with 1,700 published, the Walkers hope to raise $10,000.

You can pick up a copy at The Children's Home. Or go to childrenshomepgh.org to find an order form, links to the Walkers' Web site and more information about Child's Way.

Up in New York City, Gretchen Holt-Witt, mother of Liam, who is battling a pediatric cancer, neuroblastoma, organized the Cookies for Kids Cancer bake sale last year. It raised $400,000 from the sale of 96,000 cookies toward funding a treatment for the cancer.

That effort led to a foundation, Cookies for Kids Cancer, started by Ms. Holt-Witt and her husband, Larry Witt, to raise funds for pediatric cancer research.

On Sunday and Tuesday, volunteers baked dough donated by Jacqueline's Gourmet Cookies into 13,000 cookies (the average number of children who are diagnosed each year with cancer). The cookies will be packed and shipped to Ronald McDonald Houses across the country, including the one here. Families can stay at the houses while their seriously ill children receive care at local hospitals.

Until Wednesday, you can order some cookies for yourself at cookiesforkidscancer.org and help out. Varieties are Chunky Chocolate Chip, Liam's Lemon Sugar Cookies and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin.

The Heart of Pittsburgh Vol. 1 cookbook is marking its 10th anniversary. Developed by parent volunteers as a fundraiser for Sacred Heart Elementary School, Shadyside, volumes 1 and 2 have raised $180,000 so far for the school, which helped build and upgrade a library/community center there.

You can order copies, $17.95 each plus $2.50 shipping and handling and $1.26 sales tax, at shes-pgh.org. Or you can order both books for $34 and save on shipping. It's also at bookstores.

No computer? Call Karen Raffensperger, 412-422-4466.

Rosa Colucci, news assistant in the Post-Gazette's editorial department and public realtions coordinator for "Off the Record," announced this week that "Off the Record VIII," the annual spoof of all things Pittsburgh by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, raised $28,840 for the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, $2,000 for union scholarships and $720 for the Pittsburgh Promise campaign.

The Allegheny Front, the all-things-environmental radio program, will hold its annual local foods happy hour from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the WYEP Community Broadcast Center, 67 Bedford Square, South Side. Go to alleghenyfront.org to RSVP and to find broadcast times and stations for The Allegheny Front program. A $10 donation will be collected at the door.