Generosity is a curious thing. It inspires or in my case, makes me feel substandard for not living up to the expectations I created in my mind space. What’s incredible though is how giving, without expectation of return, can be infectious, like a virus, but the good kind of virus. As Greg likes to put things, we are simply the facilitators of this virus. This program could not exist without you, human that is reading this post.
We were going through the dozen or so nominations for this year’s fund, and while all had compelling stories, we had the difficult task of narrowing it down to two recipients. Every year it gets harder to do this. So we added a third recipient. Oh, that darned giving virus.
Because of your nominations and contributions – bidding on the hats and blanket that Rikki made, attending the cozy sweater release party, buying our beer throughout the year and any other contributions you made at [ the pub ] you were able to do a lot this year.
The fund covered the following:
one month rent payment
one month car payment
$100 in gas cards
one winter jacket
three hooded sweatshirts
four seahawks beanies
three family themed game for three kids
a group game
gobs of socks for one whole family
wrapping items so the families could wrap up the items
$100 in Pizza Colin bucks (thanks www.pizzacolin.com)
This all adds up to about $2000, which is great if that’s where it stopped. But there is more.
Our bff neighbors, Phoenix Truss, in hearing about this offered up their services.
We told them about another family’s need to get a front porch fixed.
So, they went out to take a look at it. They made a decision. They are going to completely rebuild this families front porch and back deck. Free. Gratis. Nada. Because as a Ken Beedle, owner of Phoenix Truss so gracefully put it. “I’m all about this kind of stuff. It’s the unknown national stuff that causes me to pause, but this local stuff. I’m all about it” Well said Ken. Also, I may have misquoted him a little bit.
We’re going to have to start earlier next year so we can get more people/services/businesses involved, but you all should feel pretty good about how your contributions helped. This means you’ve probably done your good deed for the next few weeks. So, go high five someone and have a beer or two.
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