- The Power of a gift

As we get deeper into all of the excitement, magic, and anticipation that surrounds the holiday season, it’s interesting to take a step back and reflect on how the meaning of the holidays has changed just a bit each year throughout my life. As a young kid, the holidays were all about gifts. I can remember looking through the SEARS catalog with my brothers – not because our family shopped at SEARS or because there as even a SEARS in the area where I grew up – but rather because it was the most all-encompassing catalog published, and thus provided an outstanding framework from which to create a wish list for Santa. This isn’t to say that we grew up getting anything we asked for, but rather to recognize that during those early years, the magic of the holiday season centered around a hope that Santa might receive and grant your own special wish.
At some point in my adolescence, as the magic of Santa waned and the SEARS catalogs disappeared, the most exciting part of Christmas morning started centering on watching someone open a special gift that I had selected for them, rather than searching around the base of our tree for a gift whose size and shape might just be representative of the catalog item I had been dreaming of for months and months. These days, the holidays are such a special time, as I get to experience both of the senses of joy I’ve just described. My girls (Molly, 3 1/2) and Maya (turning 2 on the day after Christmas) are now both old enough to recognize the significance of the season. Molly, especially, has been fun to watch, and I’ve had fun teaching her about sentimental traditions, etc. I’m looking forward to tucking her in on the night before Santa comes, and waiting for her to rise the next morning and experience her first real year of eager, unbridled, kid-on-Christmas-morning emotions.
This year, as the executive director of a young non-profit organization, my eyes have been opened to a new aspect of the craziness that exists throughout December. I receive countless requests from other charities asking for end-of-the-year contributions. I get emails from nonprofit advisors suggesting that GOALS launches a holiday drive just as all the others are doing…but I just can’t follow the masses. Not this year, anyways. It just doesn’t seem appropriate to somehow cloud the magic that this season is shrouded in with ask letters. Mailboxes should be bursting this month with letters and photos from our dearest friends that life gets in the way of keeping in touch with the way we all wish we could, no letters reminding you that you ought to take advantage of the opportunity for a tax deduction before we turn the big page on our calendars.
Nonetheless, I definitely DO want to take this opportunity to offer a sincere thanks to everyone who has joined our growing list of supporters. I’m incredibly proud of the fact that I just had to re-design the “Donors and Sponsors” page on the GOALS website- the lists were simply getting too long! As I visit more and more schools and talk with groups of parents and their children who are interested in experiencing a multi-day wilderness river program, the most common hesitation I come across is the cost. It’s that devoted list of donors who are helping us to overcome this obstacle, as a simple donation of just $10 each month results in sponsoring a day on the river for 2 kids over the course of a year.
That, to me, is an incredibly powerful gift. It’s one that didn’t require flipping through the SEARS catalog, and GOALS donors don’t get to watch on Christmas morning as the children they’re creating opportunities for tear through the gift-wrap and open the gift that each donor is giving them…but I hope that they realize their contributions are changing kids’ lives more than any shiny blue truck or two-wheeler bike ever could.
I hope you all have an incredible holiday season, and keep in mind the incredible power of your gifts.

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