The gift of giving back

by Larry Meyer
MRA Chairman and CEO

This month, MRA employee Amy Jolley is a guest columnist.
—Larry Meyer

My good friend Laurie deSilva received an early Christmas present this year. When she attended the Oprah Winfrey show in late October, she was part of a lucky audience who got to participate in Oprah’s favorite giveaway.

At the end of the show, the audience learned that the big giveaway for which Oprah has become known would be different. Oprah gave them all “the gift of giving back.”

“I want to give all of you the joyful feeling I get when I give things away,” Oprah explained.

Each audience member received a video camera and a $1,000 gift card to spend on helping people. They were asked to “open their hearts,” spend it creatively and document their giving with the video camera.

They were also encouraged to ask those they helped to “pay it forward”—that is, repay the kindness with further acts of kindness and giving.

Laurie, a mental health therapist who works with older adults at a community mental health facility in Lansing, was thrilled by the challenge—but it was a challenge. She had only a week to plan and execute it, and she asked me and another friend, Holly Carpenter, to help.

I can’t believe how many people—with the help of general retailers— that $1,000 touched. I only have room here for the highlights.

Laurie used about half the money to assist a family in Grand Ledge by giving them gift cards to a large general merchandise retailer. Two of their three young children have battled cancer. The family vowed to “pay it forward” by using much of the money to buy books and CDs for Sparrow Hospital’s children’s cancer ward. How many lives will that money now touch?

Laurie feels strongly about teaching children to develop empathy. She found a willing partner for her idea in Sara Evans, an amazing second-grade teacher at Discovery Elementary School in Williamston.

Laurie gave the children lovely journals, and she and Sara explained to them how to keep “empathy journals.” Each week the children will write in the journals about the acts of kindness they have done in their community or among their peers.

Many thanks to Rhoda Wolfs, manager at the Lansing location of Schuler Books, where we bought the journals, for giving us a discount—her way of “paying it forward.”

The look of excitement on those children’s faces was unforgettable. One boy clutched his new journal to his chest and exclaimed “I love it!” Again, that small investment will be rippling through the lives of those children and the others they touch over the years.

At a north Lansing Meijer store, Laurie tried a “random act of kindness.” She picked a woman with kids and a large cart of groceries, followed behind her in the checkout line, and offered to pay for her groceries. Startled and doubting at first, the woman came to accept that we were “for real” and was extremely grateful for the gift.

The manager at the Meijer store, Laurie Smith, also found a way to join in the giving by contributing a $100 gift card. Laurie gave the Meijer card to a woman entering the store, who used it to buy groceries for a local food bank.

We were happily surprised at the generosity of the Meijer store manager, and at how the money we were trying to spend on others seemed to keep growing!

Finally, Laurie contacted Advent House Ministries in Lansing, an organization that works to help those who struggle with poverty and homelessness in the Lansing area. At their suggestion she bought sweatshirts, hats and mittens—for adults, who often deny themselves these basics.

To purchase the items, Laurie returned to the Meijer store where manager Smith had been so helpful before. Smith insisted on a 10-percent discount, making the money go even further.

Laurie has sent in her video and the entire audience will return to Chicago Nov. 21 for a follow-up show. That day will wrap up this challenge for Laurie, but for all of us who were involved, we hope to keep paying it forward.

As we enter this holiday season, I hope you will have a chance to feel what my friends and I felt as we experienced the gift of giving back.