For my family, it was that time of year when we needed to open up the closets, face the garage, and dig into the toy chests to figure out what we truly needed to keep and what would be best to donate. We always involve our daughter in this process to reinforce the importance of charitable actions. Sometimes it’s difficult for her (and us!) to part with certain things – even though we have outgrown them or don’’ use them anymore. Belongings – while just belongings – do carry memories with them.
We were a relatively well functioning team and assembled a significant amount of items to donate – items we hoped would make another family happy. We had bikes, artist easels, a pogo stick, games, dolls, clothing, shoes, an old television, and even an enormous plastic slide (a gift from the grandparents when our daughter was a toddler)!
When we have a large number of items to donate, we like to give them to the Vietnam Veterans of America which support Vietnam-era veterans and their families. First, they accept so many different things including old electronics, furniture, carpets, books, toys of all sizes, kitchen appliances, clothing, and much, much more. Second, they have a charitable donation pickup service in a handful of states across the country (Minnesota, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and New York) where you can package up your donations, label them, and leave them outside for the VVA truck. (Super convenient!)
So, this past Sunday afternoon, we labeled and set out our belongings for a Monday morning curbside pickup. My daughter and I left early Monday for camp and passed our pile of memories at the end of our driveway. My daughter said, “Hey, mom, where are the bikes?” I stopped the car and assessed the belongings we had left out the day before. Sure enough, not only were two bikes missing, so were the pogo stick and two artist easels.
Now what do you say to your kid when your donations are stolen?! It had crossed my mind and my husband’s that our belongings could be the target of vans and trucks that rove the streets looking for valuable goods to resell or keep. Oddly, Angus MacLachlan had just shared his funny take on this very thing in a piece called “Lives: Curbside Pickup” in the New York Times Magazine.
Fortunately, I got off the hook easily as far as my daughter was concerned. She evaluated the situation with her own conclusive analysis. She said, “That’s pretty mean of someone to take stuff that was meant for people who really needed it. But . . . maybe the person who took it really needed it, too.” Then the real clincher for me was this: “Mom, maybe next time I will do what Atticus Finch did in To Kill a Mockingbird when he set up a chair outside Tom Robinson’s prison cell to protect him. I’ll guard our stuff until it gets picked up safely.”
Not only did my daughter understand the value of donating items to a worthy cause. She was willing to do what it took to make sure the intended recipients received them. I think I ended up being the one who received a lesson about generosity that day.
© YesKidzCan!, 2010
Thankfully, people have become more aware and appreciative of all that our military service men and women do for our country. However, unless you are connected to a military family, it is still difficult to fully appreciate all the sacrifices family members make when loved ones are deployed or wounded. The kids of military personnel are often the hardest hit.
