“For it to have mattered that I lived at all.”
Mrs. Silverman, my fifth and sixth grade math and science teacher, had that saying posted on her bulletin board as you exited her classroom. To me that meant making a positive difference – big or small – for someone’s life and has driven many of my career and philanthropic choices during my life.
I see that sentiment embodied in our donors and volunteers daily at the WCA. I see it in grand gestures like the Eagle Scout who organized a donation drive at two Fred Meyer stores that filled three pickup trucks with items we needed for our shelters, and the single moms who join our Hope Society at $84 per month because they know how vital our services are to the families we serve. I see it in small gestures like the young girl who picked out one toy to bring to another young girl, that she doesn’t know, so she could have something fun to play with, or the jar of pennies a family collected over several months so another family would have something.
These acts of service mean the world to our clients. Many of our former clients have been so inspired by the generosity of our community that they also give back. Some facilitate Life Skills classes at our shelters, some tell their stories in the community hoping to reach someone who needs help but isn’t sure where to go. Some become Ambassadors, volunteers and donors. All because someone else, someone they didn’t know, did an act of service for them.
It matters. It all matters.
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