Saturday, March 16, 2013

Act of Kindness #16 & #17

Act #16:
Today I was leaving the North Walmart & saw a man on the side of the road with a sign.  His sign said that he was a vet and passing through but was out of money and hungry.  So, I stopped & gave him $10 that I had on me.  I think it surprised Sam.  I told her my philosophy is "If you have a little, you give a little but if you have a lot, you give a lot.  I have a little, so, I gave a little."  We talked for a few minutes about it and I think she gets it.  If I can teach my kids that helping their fellow man is an important part of life I will consider myself a successful parent!

Act #17:
I've been trying to clean up my basement since we decided that we're going to try & finish the basement so I can do preschool down there.  Well, in an effort to minimize my collection of stuff I decided that I would give any duplicate books I own to my kids' school library.  So far, I've taken FIVE boxes up and dropped them off to their librarian.  She is thrilled!  She keeps telling me it's like Christmas for her.  The budget for the library isn't very large when you consider they have to buy the library bound books (which are a lot more money).  They don't even have an actual set of encyclopedias!  I decided that I can part with duplicate copies of my books - although it still felt like I was giving away my children!
When I had talked to the librarian about this a month or so ago I had figured I'd get the project done over Spring Break or Summer vacation.  Guess not!  After I talked to her about it the first time I was at the city library.  They were having their book sale & I noticed a set of state books for $10.  I left a msg for Katie (the librarian at the school) to go check it out.  She went down and got them & the library told her they had another set she could have as well.  Score!
And on Wednesday this past week while I was at Millville Elementary I noticed a set of encyclopedias sitting in a pile marked free.  I thought to myself "Seriously?"  So I asked the librarian at Millville if she was really getting rid of them.  They looked like they were brand new and they are Comptons.  She said she really was getting rid of them because they are 10 years old.  I told her I'd happily take them to Canyon Elementary.  She was surprised and didn't think they'd want them.  I told her they don't have an actual set of encyclopedias there so she'd be thrilled - even if they are 10 years old!  Then I told her that I have students using encyclopedias with a copyright of 1996 so 10 years old isn't that bad!  She said that if they would really use them she had another set exactly like that one that she'd send over as well.  I told her they'd love it!  So, I hauled the first set over to Canyon Elementary after school that day.  Katie couldn't believe it.  She was so excited!  I love that other people get as excited about books as I do - even if they are recycled books!