Day 160
In forty-two years, I’ve eaten
my share of birthday cake. Today,
I’m not looking for reasons to overdose on chocolate. I’ve got a different idea.
Countless opportunities exist to
help others. From across the world
to down the street, no cause is more or less worthy than another. If you need help, you need help. Period.
For me, I’m a firm believer in
starting at home. Operation Give Back in Blue Ash helps kids within the
Sycamore school district. Three
days a week they provide after-school tutoring.
The phone rings three times
before the receptionist picks up.
“Hi. This may sound crazy.
It’s my birthday and I was hoping to bring cupcakes by for the kids
after school. Do you need
snacks?” Nothing.
“Hello?”
“Today? You wanted to bring them today?”
Wendy tells me how many kids
they’ll tutor this afternoon.
Within a half-hour, I’m at Kroger buying a mix of chocolate and vanilla
cupcakes. I pick the ones covered
in cobalt blue frosting and “Happy Birthday” signs stuck in the tops. Hey, it’s my party. I just don’t need to be there.
Pulling up to Operation Give
Back’s main offices, I plan to slip in, leave the cupcakes and hightail it
home. Think Dine and Dash but
opposite.
Wendy catches me stacking the
plastic containers on her desk.
“We were just talking about how we didn’t have snacks for the
kids when you called.”
“Really?”
Wendy grasps her hands together
in prayer and lifts them to her face.
“We were talking to the office manager to see how much money we had to
spend and the phone rang.”
A chill runs up my arm. “I think I just got goose bumps.”
“We all got goose bumps.”
How’s that for a birthday
present?
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