The gift that keeps on giving
With my birthday coming up in a few hours, inevitably it leads to the yearly pestering about what I want for my birthday. Like all years, I affirm that I am content, thankful for all that I have, and want for nothing and like all years my dad insists that there has to be SOMETHING that I want because its my birthday and everyone deep down wants presents. Which usually leads to my dad getting me something that's nice but ultimately very infrequently used as I tend to have very practical and utilitarian tastes. My sister is the fashonista of the family with her fingers on the pulse of all things chic.
I started thinking about how I wish that instead of getting me something that I neither want nor need just for the sake of giving me something to unwrap that maybe the money would be better spent on a local charity. The more I thought about it, the more I decided that I would ask my family to give whatever money they wanted to spend on me to a charity in my name. Tossing the idea around in my head in class one night, I decided that the Memphis Food Bank would be a good charity with my birthday being so close to Thanksgiving.
Just monday night there was a story in the local news about the Memphis Food Bank. Usually they have 400+ turkeys by now to give out to charities and needy families for the holidays. With a week to go before Thanksgiving they have yet to receive a single turkey. There was also a newspaper article about how low the food stores were at distribution centers.
So I asked my dad Tuesday to make a donation in my name instead of giving me a present and he thought it was a great idea and agreed that we are very fortunate. I told him that feeding some hungry people through the holidays was the best birthday present he could give me since I already have so much. He made a large donation in my honor this afternoon and the company he works for matched it for a grand total of 2000 dollars.
That's a lot of Thanksgiving dinners.
I started thinking about how I wish that instead of getting me something that I neither want nor need just for the sake of giving me something to unwrap that maybe the money would be better spent on a local charity. The more I thought about it, the more I decided that I would ask my family to give whatever money they wanted to spend on me to a charity in my name. Tossing the idea around in my head in class one night, I decided that the Memphis Food Bank would be a good charity with my birthday being so close to Thanksgiving.
Just monday night there was a story in the local news about the Memphis Food Bank. Usually they have 400+ turkeys by now to give out to charities and needy families for the holidays. With a week to go before Thanksgiving they have yet to receive a single turkey. There was also a newspaper article about how low the food stores were at distribution centers.
So I asked my dad Tuesday to make a donation in my name instead of giving me a present and he thought it was a great idea and agreed that we are very fortunate. I told him that feeding some hungry people through the holidays was the best birthday present he could give me since I already have so much. He made a large donation in my honor this afternoon and the company he works for matched it for a grand total of 2000 dollars.
That's a lot of Thanksgiving dinners.