It Never Fails
It never fails. I find that whenever doing any valuable work, hurdles appear that challenge you to jump over them. Things always go wrong. During those times, I find myself surrounded by people passionate about the cause. I guess if you’re willing to tough it out through the problems, you have to love what you’re doing.
During our Back to School Giveaway in the Bronx (New York), I found myself on the sidewalk with my wife and a couple of our NeighborNet families, half an hour before the Giveaway without any backpacks. A generous brother agreed to house the 500 book bags in a storage facility he owned. Unfortunately, the place was a little tough to get to and the traffic that morning wasn’t helping.
At the location of the Giveaway, we had already put up the tent, table, posters, and were now staring at the line that had started to form. We had nothing. Calls to the brothers picking up the supplies would continuously end in suspense as they tried to conquer the maze of traffic.
With five minutes left and my head was in my hands. I looked up at some of the kids. It was already hard for some people to believe that others would give without wanting anything back. Or that others would care about their situation at all. I feared that the parents on the line would lose their patience and leave, and the impact that would have on the child.
All of a sudden I got a call. The brothers sounded very excited and they told me, “We’re a couple of blocks away. Get ready.” I got our volunteer together. When the car pulled up, we quickly removed all the supplies from the packed car and made a human chain so that the bags found their way to a few feet behind the booth.
We were able to give away over two hundred bags that day to under-served children. Seeing the children smile always makes the hard work worth it for me. However, while speaking to the brothers later regarding their trip, they described the hurdles they went through to get the bags to our Giveaway. It seemed like at each step something went wrong that they had to adjust for. I realized that anyone less passionate would have quit, turned around and went home. I value greatly working with these kinds of personalities, and sometimes the only way to meet them is through real work on the ground that presents these challenges for people to conquer.
