Day 80 ❦ Give Intentionally, Thoughtfully and without Judgement

The goodie bags ready to go to
families impacted by the Austin floods

Day 80 ❦ Give Intentionally, Thoughtfully and without Judgement

The Gift: One hundred goodie bags loaded with gift cards and holiday/Christmas decorations

Yesterday, I described the origination of the idea about how I could do something that would provide relief to a group of people who were so hugely impacted by the flooding in my community. The grief-stricken student with whom I sat couldn't have been the only person who lost their holiday decorations. I brought the idea to my Rotary Club and District to give holiday gift bags to impacted people with a generous amount of decorations and gift cards so that they could really feel special for even a short time. An emergency humanitarian grant was approved with matching funds, for $18,000.

The Austin Rotary Club in cooperation with Rotary District 5960 and adjacent Rotary Clubs in Albert Lea and Owatonna raised additional funds and we ended up with a little over $21,000 to provide some much needed pre-holiday relief in goodie bags. With those funds we purchased Christmas ornaments, decorations and gift cards for food so that they could have a nice Thanksgiving dinner and then decorate their home. Included in each canvas bag was enough for people to really have a wonderful dinner and to be able to have some respite from their continuing nightmare. Working with disaster agencies we had learned that there were 100 families who were the most impacted and divided our resources accordingly.

I have included some of the pictures of the bags so that you can see the scope of the project. More importantly, we gave the bags without judgement, without criteria of financial need, income, social standing - simply triaged by impact of the flood.

Relief workers delivered all of the bags today and the giving impact hit. Gratitude, friendship and compassion began flowing. Tomorrow, I will dedicate the entire post to the thanks that were received to share the impact that this initiative had...and it all originated from the quiet moments sitting by the river bank...

What can you do, what can you dream up, what can you make happen...if you quietly listen and create spaces for people to share their hearts?

❦ Give without judgement

Some of the goodies that went into the bags

More goodies...

And even more...

The goodie bags being sorted for distribution

On their way...