DAY 33 - DONATE - because we can change the world one step at a time

A few days ago I helped a friend move, and he had a few things that he no longer wanted – so at the end of the day we loaded them into my truck. After a few days of furniture and electronics rambling around in the back of my truck, today I finally got around to running them down to the Donation Center. A couple of nice young men emptied the back of my truck, and then handed me a coupon as a Thank You.

   Donations are a great thing. It’s a great feeling to take something that no longer serves you to somewhere that it can be shared with someone else. And if you don’t know anyone personally, these Donation Centers all around can make sure that the benefit goes to help someone that really needs the help.

   I have long been a shopper of Thrift Stores – going back to my childhood. My mom always loved finding a bargain, and my dad’s office even had a Thrift Store in it. My dad worked for the American Red Cross for 49 years, and often (especially during the summer) on days that Mom had to work, Dad would just take me to the office with him. At age 5, I was the youngest Red Cross Volunteer on record – and I really did volunteer. I would help deliver mail and messages around the building, help raise and lower the flag each day (back when people still did that), and I worked at the Red Cross Thrift Store. I would fold clothes, help count the change in the register, and sort toys (which was my favorite and I did it A LOT!)

   Sometimes people would come into the Thrift Store to shop for fun, sometimes because it was all they could afford (and even as a kid, I could tell), and sometimes people would come in to get things because they had nothing. I still remember a Mom and her two kids that came in one day – they still smelled like smoke, because their house had burned down overnight. They had a note from my Dad that gave some sort of instructions to Helen VanDyke, the 80-year-old woman that ran the Thrift Store most days – and Helen asked me to hold the bag as she loaded up clothes and other things that this family needed. I was only age 8, and about as tall as Mrs. VanDyke, but that image has stayed with me – because it was the first time I saw first-hand just how essential these donations can be. It meant everything to this family who now literally had nothing.

   So I try to donate when I can. Sometimes I have a few things, so I’ll just run a box down. Or after my Annual Garage Sale, the rest of the items are loaded into a truck and hauled down to a Donation Center. So far this summer I’ve already donated 3 truckloads, and another load or two will happen before the snow flies. And it’s good to clear out the space, and it’s good to share my excess, and it’s good to know that I’m helping out someone – like the family I remember so well from that day in my childhood.

Go into the world and do well. 

But more importantly, 

go into the world and do good.