It is still too soon to know if efforts to revive the struggling Civic Center in downtown Cape Girardeau has any chance of success. The center's funding from the Area Wide United Way was cut off earlier this year after repeated requests for financial information and other documentation weren't forthcoming.

There are many ways to seek solutions to problems, including the time-tested committee approach. In this case, earnest individuals who see the need for and potential of the Civic Center's programs, which are aimed and underprivileged youths, are studying ways to put the center back on its feet.

But one Cape Girardeau business favors a more direct approach. Instead of more discussion at another meeting, managers and employees from Lowe's, a building materials retailer, showed up at the center with materials and began sprucing up the building on Broadway. They did some landscaping, repaired some toilets and plugged some leaks in the roof.

At the end of the day, the dozen-plus Lowe's employees could take satisfaction from their efforts. This well-intentioned approach to the community's problems is a good model for accomplishing much that needs to be done -- at the Civic Center and elsewhere.