Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Hope for Humanity

Fact: A lot of goodness remains in the world. You just have to be open to seeing it in different places.



On Saturday I stood outside the main entrance to the store I work at with a cooler full of mini ice cream cups, a couple hundred scratch tickets, and the hope that some people would donate a dollar to a good cause, if only to be rewarded for their contribution. And to be honest, I was surprised. A good portion of the donations (and by that, I mean at least a third) were made without taking the ice cream. A handful left their tickets behind, too. Many people donated more than a dollar. One woman got a single dollar back in cash with her debit purchase to donate. All for kids with cancer.

Now, of course there were a handful of grumpy bastards who grunted at me or waved me off, and a few suburban housewives who were too good to speak to a peon like myself, but what really got to me were the number of kids pleading with their parents to donate more than a dollar, and then not even take the ice cream (or take it, but get Johnny's favorite kind instead). They just wanted to help other kids.

We could really learn a lot from children, you know? They see things so differently than we do as adults, and they haven't been tainted by the negative parts of society. Their world is much simpler, where people are good and we should all help and love one another. And that's really what we should all be doing... we should all be doing what we can to help each other live happy, healthy lives. How could anyone not donate to the Jimmy Fund? These kids, without your donations to pay for their treatments, will never get to experience any of the things you and I have experienced in our lifetimes. They're just innocent little babies, and if you and I are able to help them, then it's our responsibility as considerate and caring human beings to do so, one dollar at a time.

Saturday was a huge success for our Jimmy Fund program. More importantly, though, talking to people and taking their donations for such a wonderful cause was a wonderful reminder that there really is still a lot of goodness left in this world. I have hope for humanity. :)