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Be the Change This Holiday Season
The Park Avenue Group Banking Blog
There is a story circulating in the news recently, some anonymous donors have been paying off Layaway accounts for people at Kmart stores across the country. You may have seen the article and thought, “How nice, but that’s for rich people who can afford to do that…I’m not rich and can barely make Christmas happen for my own family”. On the contrary, you CAN do something for someone else less fortunate and little opportunities present themselves all the time. To be the change you want to see in the world around you, do you seize those opportunities?
I’m sure you can think of a time where you could have done something small to help someone out. Have you ever stood in line at the gas station waiting impatiently to pay for your one item while the person in front of you counts out a handful of nickels, quarters, and dimes as they try to pay for as much gas as possible to get them through the day or week until their next pay day comes? How rich do you need to be to pass them an extra dollar or two to help them out? Or have you ever been at the grocery store and witnessed an embarrassed shopper asking the cashier to remove an item from their bag because they don’t have enough cash to cover it? How deep do your pockets really need to be in order for you to be able to tell the cashier that you’d like to pay for the item for the person?
No one is suggesting that you should go to the Layaway department at your local Kmart or Wal-Mart and pay someone’s balance – little things count, too, even when they aren’t necessities. Out of the clear blue pay for the person’s coffee in line behind you in the morning, or at the drive thru when you run out to pick up lunch. Small things like this won’t hurt your pocketbook but it will make a big impact on the person receiving, if nothing else but in attitude.
In the article about the layaways, a Grandmother from Omaha had a stranger pay off all but $58 of her $250 layaway and said that although she and her husband struggle to live paycheck to paycheck, she plans to also “pay it forward” and help someone else out with their layaway. This just takes the generosity up a notch – by helping someone out, if they have an opportunity to do so, there’s a good chance the person you helped will be so inspired that they try to do the same for someone else. This is how that change begins. Many of the people who had their layaway paid off only needed $50 or $60 to do so. Most of us could do that for at least one person. What if they, in turn, took the money and used it to help someone else out? If the cycle continued, it could really make a difference to not just one but many people. Of course, it has to begin somewhere. If you truly are inspired by this great story, be the change you want to see. It can start with a small cup of coffee or a few dollars.
Check out this short, inspirational video!
