Giving Back

I tell myself that if I won the Lotto, I'd give a lot of it away. I think that would be 1) a very generous thing to do, and 2) something that I'd actually LIKE to do. I like to see people happy. But, alas, I'm not at that point right now in my finances to dole out thousands of dollars. You don't have to give out large sums to make a difference though.

Last year my daughter was reading a book about whales and saw a whale adoption form at the back of the book and asked if she could adopt a whale. She's a pretty generous person for her age and I try to encourage that in all my kids. She has a particular place in her heart for animals - like most young girls. Anyway, I decided that we would donate the funds from our bottle returns to this whale adoption that she wanted to do. A couple of months later, we had enough to sponsor a whale from the Whale Museum. She was so excited! She decided to adopt Pooka, the youngest whale so that "it could have a better life" and she could watch it grow to an adult.

After my daughter's turn at charity, my son wanted in on the action. The three of us and my dad, dressed as Santa, had spent time collecting for the Salvation Army over the past Christmas holidays. he decided that's where his charity was going. We're almost there with his money - a few more pops to go...

Every little bit helps, especially when you instill a sense of giving in youngsters - it just continues to grow.