BY: BEN PAPAGEORGE
The holiday season is a hectic time of year for many of us. There are gifts to buy, events to attend and places to be. We sometimes get caught up in all of the hustle and bustle and that can make it easy to forget what the holidays are really about: giving back to our fellow citizens and spreading good will.
Brad Saunders recently won the grand prize for the Project WILD Artist Development Program and a big component of that was a charity project aimed to give back to the community. This year, Brad committed to a 21 Acts of Kindness campaign throughout the fall. This included raising over $35,000 for Little Warriors, donating a guitar to a lucky student at Forest Lawn Elementary School, and helping to make lunches for over 1,200 children that go to school without food each day.
At Top Country, we were able to ask Brad Saunders what are five ways we can give back this holiday season. Let’s take a page out of Brad’s book and try to make these holidays a little more joyful for all!
1. Sponsor a family over the Christmas Holidays
My wife and I decided to do this last year. We were able to find a family in need through the church we attend. It truly was an incredible experience to help a single mother raising four kids on her own while working a full time job. Needless to say, she was incredibly thankful.
2. Serve dinner at the local drop in centre
These types of facilities are always looking for extra help this time of year. Serving dinner to those less fortunate is an incredibly humbling and eye opening experience. Most of us have so much to be thankful for this time of year so it’s great to be able to give back when the opportunity presents itself.
3. Invite someone into your home
Unfortunately, this time of year can be lonely for some. Maybe you know someone going through a separation, or maybe they just moved here and don’t have a lot of family near by. Look for the opportunity to invite them into your home over the Holidays.
4. Hand out gift certificates and warm clothes
This time of year can be really cold. This is a perfect opportunity to hand out blankets, jackets, gloves to those in need.
5. Be intentionally kind
As we all know the Holiday rush can be quite overwhelming. It’s seems as though there’s so much to do with limited time and as a result we sometimes get caught up in the chaos. This is the time of year where I try to slow things down and look for opportunities around me to be intentionally kind to others. It can be something as simple as letting someone in traffic, going to visit someone that otherwise wouldn’t have any company, paying for someone’s coffee etc. If we are able to slow down and look for those opportunities there are several ways to serve others this holiday season. After all, isn’t that what Christmas is all about!?
