One Family Making a Difference this Holiday Season

The date on my wall calendar reads September 21 (the thermometer, 82 degrees), and it still seems as if we have plenty of time until the holiday season unfolds. Yet, as we all know, November and December have a way of abruptly arriving. Many of us are already making some preliminary plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah. We may even be making gift purchases here and there for our friends and family. In my family (we number a good many) we have a tradition of drawing names for a family gift exchange. This is something fun, and we keep the names we draw a secret (or at least we are supposed to). We have already drawn our names, and everyone is making his/her wish list that gets posted on-line. It occurred to me a couple of days ago that maybe we needed to add a new concept to our family holiday tradition. So, I had an idea.
I composed an email, and sent it off to each household in my family that gathers together every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The idea works like this: Each household (not each member of the household) donates only $5.00 to a local charity as determined by an entire family vote. In our case, we have 8 households, and so the math is easy...8 households donating $5.00 each makes a total donation of $40.00 to a local charity. Not too shabby for one group. I came up with 3 different, but of course, all deserving charities, and each household was asked to submit one vote for their charity of choice. If a tie had occurred, I would have used the tried and true method of flipping a coin to break the tie.
I told everyone that I will collect the money on or before November 1st, so that the charity we decided on will be able to have our donation by Thanksgiving Day. I believe Thanksgiving is an appropriate time to make a donation for a couple of reasons. The closer we get to Christmas, the tighter money gets, and people usually have a little more in early November. However, the most important reason for choosing Thanksgiving, is the one that should be obvious: it is a way to do something that resonates with the true meaning of the holiday.
When my family gathers together on Thanksgiving day, we always make a point during Grace to say that we are thankful for all we have, and especially for each other. Our family donation may not amount to hundreds of dollars, but it is something we can do to benefit a local charity, no matter how small the benefit. I believe most people are generous and kind, and sometimes we (present company included) just need a little nudge to help us remember to look around at those who are less fortunate.
The response from my family has been great. Everyone is very excited by the idea. I think it may even be something we will try to do a couple of times a year- with the charity that came in second place in the voting getting an Easter time donation. $5.00 is an easy amount to come up with. I believe that my husband and I probably have that much sitting in our loose change jar. I was not sure at first how to handle the situation if one household wanted to donate more than $5.00 (which of course happened). My only concern was that another household might feel obligated to up their donation, but I didn't put any restrictions on the amount. This is for a charity after all, and the greater the donation the better. So I just decided to keep any donations larger than the $5.00 amount confidential. It is not for me to decide that a donation should be kept at a minimum. If someone has had placed in his/her heart the desire to contribute more than that is an extra blessing.
I have also asked the members of my family to spread this idea around to their friends and co-workers, because if even just 10 families in this area were to do something like this it could really have an impact on our local charities. And just imagine, if in cities all across the country, families were to participate in a collection such as the one my family has now adopted. The potential difference would be amazing. Perhaps you don't gather with too many family members; maybe you have a core of friends that you get together with who could participate in a group donation. Do I sound crazy with idealism? Good, I am happy to be excited over something like this. This is an opportunity for families as a whole to make a difference, and I think it is appealing because giving as a group to a local charity feels very personal. Don't forget, though, that there are plenty of nationwide organizations who are deserving, and if your family would prefer to donate to one of them that is a great idea, too. I am partial to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The goal here is just to give.
Go and roll up those nickels, dimes, and quarters. Or, skip the extra trip to the coffee shop, and put aside that $5.00 for your donation. Get your family involved. It is an easy thing to do. Pass the idea around! Make a difference!