Stories of Kindness from Around the World

What Can You Do With Ten Bucks?


--by Rick, posted Jan 18, 2008
The week before Thanks Giving, I did a little experiment with my class, leaving $200 in ten-dollar bills outside my classroom.  Lots of great stories unfolded.

Katrina Kapetanovic was one amongst the students.  Like everyone else in the class she struggled mightily with what to do with her $10.  Some quotes from her essay:
 
"What if I got a bunch of people to each give $10 to a beneficial cause?  Could that do more good?  Will it really end up making a substantial difference long after the money was given?  I still find myself to be stuck, constantly researching and questioning myself and how I could get the $10 to trickle down.   It doesn't seem like it could do a whole lot of good for just one person with $10 to give it away.
 
That is when it suddenly dawned on me.  This $10 serves as a reminder that I need to be doing something for a good cause.  This is enough.  I'm going to find a picture frame, frame the $10 bill and hang it in my room so I see it every day.  This way I will look at it and know that there are many people and organizations out there that could use my time more than any financial contribution I am able to give them.
 
Great!  I've figured it out. ...However, I still think there is much more that could be done. After all, I spent a great deal of time contemplating how to spend my $10 and I still don't feel like I've accomplished enough.
 
I continued.  If more people knew about the effort I put forth just to think about how to benefit as many people as possible with $10, maybe it could inspire others to get more involved, as it has inspired me.
 
How fantastic it would be if other people would stop and think of all the good they could be doing with their free time.  I now have a new goal.  I want to spread the word.  Let people know how important it is to give what they can, when they can, and this will make a substantial difference.
 
...If I could inspire 50, or even just one person to do something charitable or kind that they would not have otherwise considered, I will feel really good about myself.  Maybe these people will tell other people and it will have a ripple effect, maybe even exponential, and we will start to see an increase in those helping others.
 
Maybe ten years down the road I will review this little story and have accomplished a lot.  Maybe I will still be trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life.  However, I do know one thing: that the $10 in a picture frame hanging in my room will always be there along with the reminder that I can do a little more to make a difference."
***
 
P.S.--Katrina is already hard at work getting her former school interested in helping a woman build a house for her family in Sri Lanka, and collecting children's books.  Last semester she helped raise $1600 for a local "Gilda's Club" for cancer patients and families.  My guess is that she has just begun her odyssey of giving.
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Readers Comments

TDS wrote: When the gift has been given,
The giver and the givee,
have exchanged one gift of equal degree! Tony Silva
Betty Schaaf wrote: No matter what your religious beliefs are, when you serve others you not only enrich the lives of others, you enrich your own life even more! So SERVE as the Savior taught us by His great example.
tex wrote: i really love the idea, of using this means to pass messages to younger people thank you and keep it up.
david dunlop wrote: When our heart fully awakens to the truth of who we really are, thousands of others change.

We can scrub 1,000 orphanage floors, yet the Greatest Service is to embrace the perfection of love that we are in this moment.

Wars, hunger... all results because our minds have made contructs, opinions and beliefs.... that our reality, mankind's agreement, that we are physical beings, that we are separate, that there is space and time, waits to be healed, by each heart awakening

This is the healing of humanity, and still we can serve by scrubbing or in many ways, yes?
Frances Knapp wrote: Giving also helps you forget oyur problems and daily stresses. It is hard to focus on your own when you are focusing on someone else.
Connie wrote: Thank you for your wonderful sharing. In response, I would also like to share a way for all of us to be able to, as Rev. Michael Beckwith says, "Move from a place of 'Giving to Live', to 'Living to Give'."

I have joined a wonderful For-Benefit Humanitarian Organization that provides a vehicle for EXPONENTIAL and SUSTAINABLE Receiving AND Giving to move all people of the world, ourselves included, from a place of Survival, through Self-Empowerment, to Sustainability. Live a life of Passion and Meaning while helping those around the world! I truly believe the We ARE the ones we have been waiting for and that change will begin and flourish at a grassroots level!
tereza wrote: Because we're a consumer economy, $10 given to the poor in our society goes to the rich in one or two steps. But $10 that goes to a 3rd world producer family can give them tools to be self-sufficient, or keep them out of a medical debt that would force a child into a lifetime of labor. It also lowers our cost of living by the tiniest increment, because there's less money circulating in our economy. We need to bring our cost of living down, through helping each other freely, and bring their quality of living up through donations.
shaw wallace wrote: wow!She is an angel
She will be a heart steeler
I wish her all the best
Rick wrote: To Mary Ann and others: I forgot to mention that Katrina and several students are contributing to a fund for children in Nepal and Sri Lanka,through Sarvodaya USA's reponse to the Case Foundation America's Giving Challenge, by contacting their friends and others...suggesting that they contribute (guess what?) $10. www.sarvodayausa.org
MARY ANN wrote: PLEASE, USE THAT TEN DOLLARS LANGUISHING IN THE PICTURE FRAME TO FEED A HUNGRY FAMILY! USE A PICTURE OF THE BILL TO REPLACE IT. THEIR STOMACHS WILL THANK YOU!

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