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Thanksgiving Donations

Through the generosity of others, clients of North Iowa Community Action Organization had a very happy Thanksgiving. We all get busy with our daily lives; we go to work, we spend time with our families, we do community service work. In other words, we get all wrapped up with whatever it is we do. Then sometimes something unexpected happens; something amazingly kind. The kind of thing that makes you step back and say, I need to slow down, I need to be aware of my surroundings, I need to be thankful for what I have.
I had one of those AHA moments right before Thanksgiving. We were very fortunate to have the First Congregational Church in Clear Lake and a Red Hat Society group from Mason City call and tell us that they wanted to donate Thanksgiving food boxes to needy families in our area. The church donated enough food to help 12 families and the Red Hat Society donated for one family. These gracious donors have helped us several years in a row and we are grateful that they think of us and our families during this time of year. There is nothing quite like seeing a family’s eyes light up when they see us coming with the box of goodies.

We had an unexpected surprise this year and that is what I want to tell you about. We received a telephone call from a woman who described a situation with her grandson. She proceeded to tell us that this young man had worked a job the previous summer and had taken some of his earnings and set them aside. He set aside his hard earned money so that he could buy food for families at Thanksgiving. Grandma was calling to ask us if she could bring her grandson and the food he purchased to our office so that we could distribute it to some needy families. We said that we would be more than willing to distribute the food for them. So on the day before Thanksgiving, up drives Grandma and her grandson to the front of our office door. The grandson jumped out of the car and began unloading boxes of food…four boxes to be exact…four BIG boxes! This young man set out to unload the boxes, carrying them in to our building and setting them where we asked. He went about it quietly and efficiently. While I tried to tell him how much we appreciated his generosity and how much the families that were going to receive these boxes would appreciate it, he really didn’t want to talk about it. We asked the young man his name and he politely declined to share it. We told him that he was a kind young man to think of others but he really didn’t want to talk about that either. You see, here was a young man who just wanted to do something good for someone else. It was clear that he didn’t want recognition or our thanks…he just wanted to do what felt right for him. What a lesson I learned that day from a young high school boy full of kindness and humility.

What about the families that received the boxes? When we gave them the boxes and told them the story about the donor there were many smiles and many tears of joy.

I have no doubt that many of us that were affected by this young man’s generosity will pay it forward.

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