Thanksgiving is when the United States becomes a nation of optimists. We may whine 364 days out of the year, but come the fourth Thursday of November we remember to count our blessings. We may have difficulties, but we know it could be worse. And we recognize even if for a short time around a table covered with food that our lives are full of abundance, even if the bills are overdue, we've lost our job and we've tightened our belt as much as we can.

Instead of using what we don't have as a measuring stick, on Thanksgiving we see our wealth in the things we do have. For most of us, those treasures aren't monetary in nature, but stem from the riches found in family and friends. Still, some hard, cold statistics show just how good we have it when it comes to material things:

* The average income in America is $38,611 per person, or about $105 a day.

* 1 billion people, about 15 percent of the world's population, live on less than $1 a day.

* 2.6 billion people, about 40 percent of the world's population, live on less than $2 a day.

* If you make just $25,000 a year, you are richer than about 90 percent of the world's population.

* If you make $50,000 a year, you are richer than 99 percent of the world's population.

* In the United States, about $3,170 is spent on health care per person each year. In much of Africa and Southeast Asia, it's about $36.

* About 854 million people throughout the world (about 1 in 7) do not have enough food to sustain them.

* About 9 million people a year about 25,000 a day die of hunger or hunger-related causes.

* 93 percent of the people in the world don't own a car.

We all know volunteers make the world go round. Just look at these statistics:

* In 2008, 61.8 million volunteers across the country donated approximately 8 billion hours of service.

* In Alaska, 36.8 percent of adults volunteered in 2008, contributing 29.7 million hours of service. In fact, Alaska ranked fourth in the nation for its volunteer rate between 2006-2008.

* Alaska ranked No. 1 for having the highest percentage of residents attending community meetings in 2008 at 20.8 percent.

* A number of community characteristics help boost volunteer rates: higher homeownership rates, higher education levels, shorter commuting times, higher number of community organizations and associations, and lower levels of poverty and unemployment.

* Research indicates that the poorest fifth of U.S. households contributed an average of 4.3 percent of their incomes to charitable organizations in 2007, while the richest fifth gave at less than half that rate, 2.1 percent.

If you're looking to join those volunteers' ranks, make there are plenty of places that need you. During the holiday season, the Share the Spirit program has an amazing array of opportunities where you can help. See page 2 for how you can get involved.

Since September, the Homer Foundation has been writing a monthly column about philanthropy. One of the key points of the column is you don't have to be a millionaire to be a philanthropist. This month's column, on page 5, talks about how to get your children involved in giving their time, treasure and talents.

At the end of the column are a couple of volunteer opportunities you may be able to fill. If you are a nonprofit, let us help you get the word out on your needs, by e-mailing them to us at news@homernews.com.

If you still aren't convinced you have blessings to count this Thanksgiving, we offer the example of the Johnson family of Homer Lionel, Alysha and their toddler daughter, Quyanna who lost nearly everything they owned in a house fire earlier this month.

On a Nov. 17 Mid-Day Connection radio program, Alysha called in with this word of thanks: "I am grateful that on Monday, Nov. 9, when my house burned down, nobody was hurt, not even the dog."

Here at the Homer News we are grateful for you our readers, advertisers and letter writers. Our hope is you have many blessings to count this Thanksgiving.