One of the Nicest Things You Can Do for Someone

I recently had lunch at an event at Fox Valley Technical College celebrating their Fab Lab, a collection of prototyping equipment coupled with an international network of fabricating expertise in collaboration with MIT. While I could ramble at length about the technical and entrepreneurial potential of this world-class Appleton facility, one of the really impressive moments came before the tour during lunch. A man at my table shared with me his experiences in helping a family in Bolivia gain access to education. For many years, they have been providing money through a Catholic agency (the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging) to provide education to those in emerging nations, and had become directly involved in helping one particular family. He shared with me the excitement in knowing that the oldest daughter, rather than being condemned to poverty, has advanced far enough to now be in college, with bright prospects. They even went down to Bolivia to meet the family in their poor circumstances, and were blessed and uplifted by the encounter.

Success in so much of the world is directly tied to one’s education. I was really delighted to learn of his family’s experience and their kindness, and told him that he had done one of the best things anybody could do for someone else.

For Latter-day Saints, the Church’s Perpetual Education Fund is a truly inspired way of helping young people in developing nations break the cycle of poverty through education. It’s a program we should probably support a little more.

Christmas time is approaching. Rather than scrambling to find the best electronic gadgets that we can give away to people who don’t need them (the stories I’ve heard of “Black Friday” shopping are so pathetic – hundreds of people camping out overnight in the cold just for chance to grab hot items on sale at 5 a.m.), what if we held back part of our intended Christmas budget to give the gift of education? Whether through the Perpetual Education Fund or some other reliable agency, I think it would be a nice improvement for our Christmas gift giving. I know some of you were thinking about getting me Accordion Hero for Xbox, but I’m willing to postpone that gratification if you’ll donate what you would have spent and then some to help one of our brothers or sisters have a chance to improve their education.

Share:

Author: Jeff Lindsay

6 thoughts on “One of the Nicest Things You Can Do for Someone

  1. Outstanding! I really agree. And your point about people sacrificing family time to go fight crowds is well taken.

    Black Friday is a dark and crazy day indeed. What a waste.

  2. I agree with your post almost entirely. I take partial exception to the word “pathetic” in reference to Black Friday shopping.

    While I do agree that it can be pathetic to expend so much effort for so trivial a thing, my wife and I have some of our best memories of the times we’ve spent together shopping those early hours on that day (last Friday was an absolute blast for us). We wouldn’t trade it for anything.

    Nice post!

  3. RE: college costs—-I have heard of undergrads coming out of college with almost $40,000 in school loans. This is tragic. If the person is going into a career such as teaching his debt is greater than his beginning income.

    Dale

  4. Early in our marriage my wife and I committed to give at least $100 a year to the Perpetual Education Fund, and we generally give at least twice that. I may do just what you suggest with Christmas funds and give the gift of education. Great suggestion

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.