I got a little behind in my posts and I will try to catch up. Day 39 was my birthday. It was a rather calm and peaceful day. I had the opening of the play that I am in, The Foreigner.
After lunch I was walking down Connecticut Avenue and got cornered by some folks trying to get people to donate to C.A.R.E. I patiently listened to “Sandra” talk about the importance of donating, especially now given the crisis in Haiti. In fact she says she is from Haiti…well, her parents are from Haiti and she studied some in High School there. I asked how her family was and she said that everyone that she knew was thankfully ok.
I let her finish her pitch and then threw my curveball. I explained to her the Year of Giving and told her that I would like to give my $10 to her, and then she could do anything she wanted to with the money.
Sandra is not her real name, but she was very concerned that her name might get on the Internet…so we agreed to use this pseudonym. She goes on to explain that she was born in Canada and moved to DC about 18 months ago. “I didn’t do much for a little more than a year, then I got this job about two months ago” she explained.
Since the 27-year-old interacts with the public every day about so many important causes I was interested in some of her experiences, however, she said that nothing really stood out. I couldn’t believe it…how could you spend two months interacting every day with the public and not have a list of stories. I have been doing my Year of Giving for 39 days and when I get asked what interesting experiences I have had, I can hardly wait to tell people about Anthony, Kevin, Jenny, Gilles, David, etc… the list goes on. I pressed her a little more and she did recall seeing Robin Williams on the streets of Georgetown recently. No, she didn’t ask him to donate if you were wondering.
I circled back around to the $10 and asked her what she planned to do with it. I was wondering if she would donate it to C.A.R.E. since she was so passionate about me contributing to the organization. She said she didn’t want to do anything with it today. She was just going to put it in her pocket and think about it. Later, she said she would use it to buy lunch one day next week.
A parking enforcement officer walks by and she recalls that earlier that day she had given a man 50 cents to put in his meter and he said to her, “Thank you. Something great is going to you today!” She looks at me and says, “He was right!”
Year of Giving 