CFM touted in USA Today

Recently, Cloud & Fire Ministries received a wonderful mention in USA Today:

Thanks to the givers among us

By Alcestis "Cooky" Oberg
When Warren Buffett and Bill Gates urged their fellow billionaires to pledge half their wealth to charity, I smiled. I know someone who did better than that.

It was an old woman just ahead of me in the supermarket checkout line last year. After buying her meager groceries, I could see her wallet held only $20. As she walked out, she put the whole $20 into the red Salvation Army bucket and was thanked effusively by the bell-ringer.

She did better than the billionaires' 50%: She gave all she had that day.

This Thanksgiving, I'm giving thanks for all philanthropists, great and small. But I'm especially grateful for the "little people" like that old lady — those who have so little but give so much, even during our harsh recession. They are like a great evergreen tree planted in the heart of the nation, sustaining their neighbors and friends with their generosity.

Though we don't often see this philanthropy flowing through our nation in the news media, 89% of U.S. households donate. America is the most generous nation on the planet, making up nearly half of the world's total giving. The average American is 14 times more generous than the average European, because Americans see philanthropy as their individual responsibility, not as a governmental activity, as most Europeans do. The middle class and working poor give proportionally more of their income than the rich (4.2% vs. 2.7%), I suspect because they're closer to the struggles of their neighbors. Religious people tend to give more readily than secularists (91% vs. 66%), because their churches, temples and mosques are more in touch with local community needs — and because the great lesson of all religions is philanthropy, the moral obligation to look after one's fellow human beings.

Giving where we can

In my own little country church, First United Methodist of Brazoria, Texas, there are no rich people. However this summer, their humble donations and volunteer time — together with those of three other small churches — fed more than 6,000 lunches to the town's poor children when no school lunch programs were available. My church's youth volunteered part of their July to fix the dilapidated houses of the old and impoverished. And when the first day of school approached, our members got together a truckload of school supplies and gave them to the strapped local schools.

In towns and cities across America, thousands of churches, food pantries and charity centers reached out with help, food, time and money to meet the needs of their neighbors and friends. Because donations fell 3.6% in 2009, in the midst of the nation's second-worst economic downturn, more resources have been directed toward "vital needs," just as in the Great Depression.

"We're all born with a purpose," says Michael Guillen, president of the non-profit Philanthropy Project. "And life is about finding it — not by indulging ourselves — but by losing ourselves in service to a great cause." He observes that even when they are down-and-out, philanthropic people turn outward and help those worse off than themselves. "It's the give-and-glow effect," Guillen says, "whereby in doing good, you end up receiving so much more than you give."

Guillen points to the case of Zach Bonner. When Zach was 6 years old, he used his little red wagon to collect water and provisions for victims of Hurricane Charley, the vicious storm that hit the Gulf Coast in 2004. He formed the Little Red Wagon Foundation and now raises donations for homeless kids with dramatic walks across the nation. He hands out "Zachpacks" filled with donated essentials, snacks and toys to kids who have nothing.

Finding a 'purpose'

If he had great wealth, Guillen would support small, successful efforts such as the Cloud and Fire Ministries, whose founder is Melody Rossi, a former opera star who became an inner-city teacher. "There, she found her purpose, which was to rescue Hispanic boys in danger of getting involved with gangs," Guillen says. Through a combination of mentoring and education, along with religious and moral guidance, Rossi helped transform these would-be gangsters into productive citizens. Another favorite of Guillen: D.C. Central Kitchen, started by a nightclub owner and impresario. It uses leftover restaurant food not only to feed homeless and jobless people, but also to train them for jobs in the food industry.

"Philanthropists don't just write checks; they get really involved in solving pressing human needs," says Guillen.

These people aren't saints, just ordinary people who create something small and special that steadily builds into something mighty and important.

I am still warmed by the goodness and philanthropy of that old woman who gave away everything she had that cold blustery day. Was she a Hurricane Katrina survivor who had been rescued by the Salvation Army and had settled in our town? Or was she a person who had followed the Golden Rule her whole life, and this was just one day in that blessed life? I will never know. But I do know her $20 donation meant so much to someone else — perhaps another storm victim or a needy family grateful for some holiday dinner, clothing, toys and hope.

As Mother Teresa observed, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

Alcestis "Cooky" Oberg is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

See the article on USA Today, November 24, 2010