Gift of the week

In my fundraising class this semester, our instructor had us do something she called "Gift of the Week". The basic premise is to share something with the class that you did for someone in the previous week, or if you didn't have that, you could share something someone did for you.

One of our classmates and his wife are having a baby next month, and for this last week of class, our gift was to give him a baby shower during class. He was completely overwhelmed and sent pictures to his wife. There were a lot of ducks and baby wipes involved.

As a few of us were helping him load his car after class, an elderly gentleman with a cane approached us, holding out his veteran ID card. As he walked up to us, he kept making sure to mention that he meant no harm, and explained that he and his wife had been living in the nearby shelter, but after reaching the 30 day limit, they had to leave. He was waiting for his disability to go through, and they were trying to make it while that was pending. He was hoping we might be able to help.

And here's where things clicked for me. I rarely EVER have cash on me. But, it just so happened that in a trivia tournament last weekend, I had received $50 in cash, and was down to $28 in my wallet. I had no doubt that I would hand him something, like my classmates did. As I rifled the bills for a second to see what I had, I ended up pulling the $20 out and handed it to him.

He stuck around for a minute more, as we explained we had just had a baby shower, and that it was our classmate's first child. He told us that he had served as a medic in the military, and he hoped that our classmate would enjoy his child as he had enjoyed having his children. He also mentioned how it's getting warmer in the daytime, but the nights were still chilly.

I'm not positive where he went after that, but as I drove home, I hoped that what we gave him could help keep he and his wife warm (he had mentioned they had been using candles) and get them some food and drink. I also had the moment of "well, I either did something I hope is helpful or I did something stupid and got conned."

A friend of mine reminded me that you have to trust the good in people.

Which then brought me to something that happened in conjunction with the Easter Egg Hunt I helped plan last weekend.

I got a phone call from Mike at Meridian Township. He wanted to ask some questions for an older adult with an intellectual disability (and if I've used the wrong term, please let me know) who had participated in their Easter egg hunts and wanted to participate in ours. We talked for a bit and I told him that she was welcome to come and that she just needed to come to the table at the hunt and ask for me.

Well, she showed up, asked for me and I was hunted down and introduced to her. Her name was Holly, and I'm telling you, she was so excited to be able to participate. Then she said she had something for me and handed me two jeweled bobby pins. I'm lucky I didn't lose it.

Luckily, I was able to adjust our volunteers that were out and about and Laura was able to help her around the hunt to make sure she was ok and that we had someone official with her. Laura did a fantastic job with her and we have some suggestions for how to handle something like this for next year, but this is the first year we've provided assistance to an adult that wanted to participate and overall, I think she had a great time. She hadn't even gotten to do the hunt before she was asking if she could come back next year!

So, while this past week was incredibly busy and exhausting, it also provided a few gifts of the week that may seem small, but I would imagine meant a lot to those receiving them. I know I'm grateful for being able to help.