Give It Away
My dad was listening to one of his favorite CD’s by the Gaither’s a few years ago. There is a song on there called, “Give it away.” My dad liked it because it had a nice beat to it, but as he listened to the words of it, he was inspired with an idea. He was going to ‘give it away.’ It was getting close to the Christmas Holiday and he was in the spirit of giving. He shared his idea with his boss and she was thrilled about it. It was only a month before Christmas and my dad’s boss is just like him – she loves to give. She took $4500.00 and split it up 9 ways for the 9 different departments they had. Then they drew a name from each department. The person who got their name drawn was given $500. The deal was that they had to give their $500 away. They had to find an organization, a family or an individual who needed this money and they had to give it to them. That wasn’t the only thing. After they gave the money away, the boss wanted them to come back to the office and give her some kind of feedback; for instance, what happened when they gave this money away? How did the person react? How did it feel when they gave the money away?
Some of the guys had very negative feelings about this project at first. A few of them even felt aggravated to have this kind of responsibility. They didn’t know how to handle it or who to give it to. One guy in particular came home and told his wife about it. Immediately her and their children said, “What about the neighbors across the street?” The neighbor’s husband had just passed away. The woman was really struggling, raising her two children alone. He thought for a moment and said, “That would be a pretty a good idea.” He handed the money to his wife and said, “Go ahead and take it over there.” His wife smiled and said, “The money was given to you. This is about you – not me. It’s your blessing.” He is a very tough guy with a rugged image. He’s not a sentimental type person and he dreaded walking over to the neighbors. In fact, he had never even officially met them. He procrastinated a day or two before he went over and knocked on the door. He didn’t even know what to say. When she came to the door, he just handed her the envelope and told her that he understood that she was having a rough time and he thought she may need this; then he handed her the envelope. She hugged him and started crying. Of course, he is not that type of person to display his emotions and he gets uncomfortable if someone begins crying in front of him. This, however, got him a little choked up. When he got back to the house, his wife asked him how it went and he couldn’t even talk about it. Later the lady came back over to their house to thank them again. When he handed her the envelope, she didn’t know how much was in there. She had to wait to come over because she couldn’t stop crying. She did not know how she was going to make it through the Christmas season, but that envelope changed things completely for them. She couldn’t thank them enough.
Another guy, who received $500, took it home and talked to his family about it. He was kind of aggravated to have this responsibility on his hands also. His two children jumped up right away and said, “Dad, there are kids at our school who can’t even afford lunch or any extra curriculum.” His wife reminded him also of a couple of people they knew who could really use the money. They ended up splitting up the money between four different families – $125 for each one.
There is also a couple who works together at the office. His name was drawn for one of the $500 gifts. He and his wife were on their way home from work and they were discussing what they could do with the money. They stopped by the grocery store and while they were standing in line, they noticed a poor little lady standing behind them in line. She had two cute little girls and it looked like she had one on the way. The man looked at the groceries she had in the cart and he could tell that she was watching her budget. They were clean, but not dressed very well. His heart went out to her. Then he thought about the money. He nudged his wife, pointed to the woman with her children and then pulled out the money. His wife smiled at him and gave him the thumbs up. The lady was very leery at first to accept the money, but once she did, she began crying. She told them that their children would have a good Christmas now because of that money. They all went out of the store with tears in their eyes and warmth in their heart. The cashier even started crying.
There was another man who received one of the $500 gifts. He went to his pastor to find out if there were any needy families at the church who were struggling. They found a couple of families and split it up between them. The man told the Pastor to go ahead and hand it out to the families. The Pastor said, “It’s your gift. You have to give it.” Even though the man was a little uncomfortable, he passed out the money to the families. He was really touched as he found that he received just as much of a gift as the families did. It made him feel so good inside. It was very touching how the Pastor made him handle it.
Some of the people, who got the money, split it up in several different ways. One guy put $25 in 20 different envelopes, took them to a poor neighborhood and dropped an envelope in 20 mailboxes, along with a special Christmas message. Another man, bought $500 worth of groceries, divided them up in 8-10 different boxes, slipped a Walmart gift card in there and left it on several porches, for them to find it on Christmas morning. There was a man who took the money to the Mayor. He asked him to pass the money out as he seen it needed. He wanted the Mayor to deliver the money but not to mention where it came from. One of the guys took it to the Fire Department, to see if they could divide the money up among needy families in the area. The other guy took it to the Police Department for them to pass out the money to some families who may have needed it. My dad’s boss is a very kind-hearted woman. It made her feel good to be able to hand out this money. However, it even made her feel better to get the feedback from the people who passed out the money. Then it made the guys feel good, who passed out the money. Most of them admitted that they were not looking forward to doing it at first; however, it ended up being the most memorable Christmas they ever had. It wasn’t all about the people who received the money, it was about the people who gave it away and how it made them feel as well. What a beautiful way of giving – and receiving. Just give it away.
Sherri Stanczak
