Keep smiling, Keep giving.

Just last week, I saw a story on the news about a small community who united together after a wounded soldier returned home.  

They built handicapped ramps, constructed a special booth for him to still coach football and made a zip line like contraption so he could play with his kids and still be the baseball coach.

It was a community on a mission.  It  was amazing what the community did and came up with to help this man.   This community wanted to give back to the injured soldier, former football and baseball coach.   



I watched the story and was heart warmed.  How cool would it be to be a part of something like this?

Saturday, as our community reeled with grief after hearing about Drew, there was one overwhelming feeling, what could we do?  Everyone felt so helpless, so lost.  What could we do?  Of course there is always food but seriously, if everyone took a casserole, where would they store the casseroles?

And then,  there it was.  One of the teachers started a fund raising campaign.

I saw it on Facebook and said to Franklin, "They have started a fundraiser for Drew H."

Translation, "we are giving."

Walker heard this and said, "I have ten dollars that grandma sent me for fifth grade graduation.  I will give my money."

When I placed my donation, only a few had and there was only about $1500 raised. 

I watched that number like I was Jerry Lewis at this telethon.  I wanted that goal to be reached and then blown away.

And as I watched, it grew.  My friend delivered brownies, another mac and cheese.

And as the numbers grew, I continued to smile.  As sad as we all were, we were all proud and happy to be a part of something good.  Hitting that "send" button was a great feeling and we could feel like we were doing something, anything.

The first thing I did this morning was to check the number.  Call me Jerry Lewis.  The only thing missing was some little girl singing and doing a tap dance.

Yes!  almost to the goal.

I took the time to read  the names and the comments.  Amazing.      There was so much love on those pages as you scrolled.  The teaching community and there commitment to a fellow teacher and her son gripped me.

And I couldn't help it, I smiled the whole time.  There, even in his absence, I was smiling.  Drew brought a smile to everyone at any time. And even in the saddest of times, people were uniting to give back to a young man because he had given.

Truly, life's greatest gift is when you can keep giving and keep people smiling after you are gone.

Thank you Drew.