Guest Blog from Liz Cotter Schlax

(Hi - it's me, Colin. I had some writers' block and a busy schedule this week so I convinced our VP of Resource Development, Liz Cotter Schlax to write a guest blog. Here it is – enjoy!)

It's always been important to me that I teach my two young girls about charitable giving. A friend helped me get started with this by giving my four-year-old a Moonjar for her birthday. A Moonjar is like a piggy bank with separate sections for “spend,” “save,” and “share” (fiscal responsibility and generosity in one… what could be better?!)

My daughter wasn’t exactly sure about the whole concept, but she liked the idea of separating out the quarters she got for an allowance and putting them into the little slots. At some point, someone gave her a dollar, too.

Then, we told her that our family would all be doing a special walk together with lots of other people in support of grownups and children who are very sick and trying to get better. Unprompted, she said that she wanted to take her dollar and give it to help the sick kids.

When we got to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk, she proudly marched up to the donation table and gave them her dollar. Over the next few days, she told quite a few people that she had helped the sick kids. She was pretty proud. And so was I.

First, my daughter learned to share her toys with her sister, then with others in her pre-school class. Now she knows about sharing with others who she may never meet. Someday, she’ll understand that these others’ lives are far more connected to hers than she can ever see, as she lives and works in a mutually-dependent community.

My little girl doesn’t know what “community” means yet, but she gets the concept already. That sense of community—that notion of inter-connectedness to others I don’t even know, but with whom I share a collective destiny—is what inspires me to give and is why I love what I do. I get to see “community” in action every day.