You people and your MC Gives! generosity.

I like to start the editing process by stripping away the adverbs, telling the writer that adverbs are not their friends and then going back in after the adjectives on round two.

This time, though, there’s no way around it. This column is going to be superlative city, baby, because of what all of you crazy-generous people have done.

What you’ve done is blow all expectations out of the water when it comes to Monterey County Gives!, the Weekly’s annual charitable campaign to back the big ideas of local nonprofits. We launched this year’s Gives! campaign on Nov. 12, after months of preparation, with a goal of reaching $2 million in donations.

By the time the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve and we rolled into 2016, the campaign ended and we had reached $3,165,552 – and counting. Checks that were postmarked by midnight on Dec. 31 are still coming in and we're still accepting them, because them’s the rules.

From a hopeful $2 million to an omigod $3 million-plus. A lot of nonprofits are starting the year off with a bang thanks to you crazy-generous people.

I asked her for some of her memorable moments from this year, and she obliged.

This year donors ranged in age from 8 months (pretty sure mom and dad made the donation on baby’s behalf, for SpectorDance) to 93 years (a woman who pointed out her age so we would be sure to note she didn’t fit into the “donors under 35” category – a special honor Gives! bestows to nonprofits who have the most donors under age 35, a way to encourage the younger crowd to give).

There were some jaw-droppingly large donations, too. 

Certainly the large individual donations helped propel Gives! past $3 million, as did organizational challenge grants (this year, they totaled $423,890) and the overall matching fund (this year, it was $348,000). But we also had 4,006 donors who made individual donations of $2.39 million. So whether you could drop a check for $50K, or one for $50 or even $5, you were part of something bigger when you made your donation this year.

I asked Weekly founder and CEO Bradley Zeve for his thoughts on this year’s Gives! and he agreed: superlative city.

“If there was ever a time for using superlatives – wow awesome, rad – it may be The Monterey County Gives! campaign,” he says. He notes we had almost twice as many donors this time around as last year, bolstered by major partners including the Community Foundation for Monterey County, Monterey Peninsula Foundation, Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel, Cannery Row Company and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.

The superlatives are great, but here’s one example of what these donations mean. Thanks to you, Loaves, Fishes & Computers can give away 95 bilingual computers to 95 families this year. That’s 95 households whose children will be able to do schoolwork, and whose adults will be able to access digital literacy skills.

You people. You crazy-generous people. You did this. There aren’t enough superlative thanks in the world.

MARY DUAN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com.

This online version of the Local Spin column was updated at 4:15pm, Jan. 7.