I found myself in a Target this past weekend and between grabbing diet coke and pizza from the food court I was anxious to look at the clearance racks. I immediately noticed that the Back To School campaign was in full gear. Un sharpened pencils, crayons, glue sticks and more were on display taunting reluctant parents to purchase them. I have never noticed a Back to school campaign in early July before and I pondered why this year was different. It occurred to me that this year was different because many parents that once had stable homes no longer have their jobs. I realized that the unemployment rate has skyrocketed especially in my home state of Michigan. I felt a sinking feeling in my heart as I realized that some children would have to go without the staples needed to have a successful school year. I also realized that if parents were able to buy the necessary school supplies with a shortened budget this may take away from other needed household staples. I whizzed my shopping cart past my husband and began filling my cart with pencil boxes, crayons, glue, and pencils. Astonished, my husband looked at me with confusion since we have no kids and we ourselves are on a strict budget. I explained to him that I had a certain amount set aside for spending for myself on this shopping trip and that I felt the need to use that money to give to the kids that we would see the next day at our church picnic. It may not be much but some kids were ecstatic to see the little care packages of supplies to get them started. Some of the parents breathed sighs of relief and gave me hugs. I have plans to do more to give back this year and I'd love to hear suggestions from you. If you don't have much money to give back time can be just as precious...I hope that you are able to benefit from this blog post regardless if you are able to give to others or receive from them.
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