Hailey and Charity
Hailey has a classmate at school that is being treated for cancer. She wasn't close friends with her, but they did projects in class together and the whole incident has really affected Hailey. There has been some fundraisers where shirts and bracelets were being sold. Hailey had decided she wanted to purchase those, but she also wanted to raise some money herself. At first, she initially wanted to start a lemonade stand, but I explained to her how that might not work so well in the middle of winter. She then thought about making some crafts and attempting to sell those. While she has very good intentions, her ideas aren't 100% practical. I really liked the crafts she was making, but I didn't really have any ideas on how she would sell them. Rachael made the suggestion that she could go door to door and collect pop bottles. We came up with the idea that instead of selling her crafts, she could give them to people in return for pop bottles she was collecting.
Hailey started visiting all the neighbors in our apartment complex. Pretty quickly, she was coming back with garbage bags full of cans and also a fair amount of cash. The neighbors were very willing to help out. I posted a picture up on Facebook of the cans Hailey had collected. After that picture was up, she then got more donation offers from family and friends. Brett also decided that he wanted to help and gave $5 of his own money to the cause. Over the course of one weekend, she ended up raising $70. It was pretty exciting and Hailey felt really good about what she was doing. She was feeling like she could actually make a difference. She is such a giving person that she couldn't stop there. She also bought two shirts they were selling with her own money, one shirt for herself, one for Brett. Overall, between her own money, and the money she raised, she had $100 for her classmate's family. This weekend, another fundraiser was taking place, a movie at a local theater in which proceeds were going toward her classmate's family. I mentioned to Hailey that I we were planning to go there. She asks right away how much tickets were, and then she replied "OK, that will be $20 total, I'll pay for it". It's very exciting to see how giving she is. I let her know that this time the treat was on me though, as she has done so much to help out.
I'm at that weird point now where I don't even know what to expect from my kids anymore. The simple milestones such as crawling and walking and talking are far past. The milestones I now see are the times like this where they are willing to think beyond their own wants and needs and put other people first. It's nice to know they are able to act this way, as it's very easy to only be concerned with one's self. Additionally important, I think, is that Hailey is able to achieve this sense of charity without any type of feeling that it's somehow required of her, or that she will be rewarded somehow for this selfish act. I feel that religion often causes charity to happen for the wrong reasons and I hope that Hailey and Brett won't feel that they are expected by some power to be generous and that they will do it with their own will.
Hailey started visiting all the neighbors in our apartment complex. Pretty quickly, she was coming back with garbage bags full of cans and also a fair amount of cash. The neighbors were very willing to help out. I posted a picture up on Facebook of the cans Hailey had collected. After that picture was up, she then got more donation offers from family and friends. Brett also decided that he wanted to help and gave $5 of his own money to the cause. Over the course of one weekend, she ended up raising $70. It was pretty exciting and Hailey felt really good about what she was doing. She was feeling like she could actually make a difference. She is such a giving person that she couldn't stop there. She also bought two shirts they were selling with her own money, one shirt for herself, one for Brett. Overall, between her own money, and the money she raised, she had $100 for her classmate's family. This weekend, another fundraiser was taking place, a movie at a local theater in which proceeds were going toward her classmate's family. I mentioned to Hailey that I we were planning to go there. She asks right away how much tickets were, and then she replied "OK, that will be $20 total, I'll pay for it". It's very exciting to see how giving she is. I let her know that this time the treat was on me though, as she has done so much to help out.
I'm at that weird point now where I don't even know what to expect from my kids anymore. The simple milestones such as crawling and walking and talking are far past. The milestones I now see are the times like this where they are willing to think beyond their own wants and needs and put other people first. It's nice to know they are able to act this way, as it's very easy to only be concerned with one's self. Additionally important, I think, is that Hailey is able to achieve this sense of charity without any type of feeling that it's somehow required of her, or that she will be rewarded somehow for this selfish act. I feel that religion often causes charity to happen for the wrong reasons and I hope that Hailey and Brett won't feel that they are expected by some power to be generous and that they will do it with their own will.