by Sherri A. Stanczak

Created on: November 29, 2009   Last Updated: November 30, 2009

GIVE IT AWAY

My dad was listening to one of his favorite CDs 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.

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