Thursday, May 16, 2013

A Lesson To Learn From Children


This week at Head Start, our classrooms are participating in the St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon. The Trike-a-Thon is a week long event dedicated to bicycle safety, as well as, an opportunity to raise money for the children at St. Jude's. Since we are a Head Start program and 90% of our families live at or below the poverty line, I did not have very high expectations for how much money we would raise. Regardless of that, it was still going to be a great opportunity to teach our children that there is always someone less fortunate than us that we can help.

Our goal for the Trike-a-Thon event was $200 and you can imagine my surprise when a child turned in her donation packet with a check for $160. A four year old raised $160 -- five of those dollars being from her own piggy bank. I couldn't help but tear up. She took to heart the lesson of helping those less fortunate.

So far, the children have raised close to $300 and I couldn't be more proud of our babies! It also got me thinking about how reserved I am with donating my money. If these families who are living paycheck to paycheck find even a few dollars to donate to the cause, why am I, a young professional making a good living, so quick to find any reason as to why I can't "afford" to donate?

Now, this doesn't mean that I need to give $160 a month to a charity I believe in. And it doesn't mean that I only need to give monitarily, because giving your time is just as important. But I do want to be better about supporting other organizations outside of the one I am working for.

I've been blessed beyond belief with the life I was born into, and I never forget that. That is why I chose to become a Social Worker and give my life to serving those less fortunate. I need to be better about giving both my time and my money. If a child who has nothing has the ability to give so freely, I have the ability to do the same.

So, I challenge you all to do the same. Give freely. Find something, a charity, an organization, that you're passionate about and donate your time or your money -- or both. Sometimes we think that our little contributions aren't making a difference, but they are. Even if one life is changed for the better, it was a success.

3 comments:

Fit With Flash said...

I love it! I try to give at least once a month... There's never a shortage of friends trying to raise money for fundraiser races and such. Nice job with the little ones : )

The Best of Both Worlds said...

Love this! Made me tear up!

Ashley said...

love this! andy stanley was talking about money the other day and saying look at where it's easy to spend (clothes, food, bars) and kind of evalute it -then do the same where it's hard to spend. you can easily see where your heart is. definitely need to start giving more. awesome post!