Tag Archives: Dress for Success

Small Gift, Big Impact: A Mitten Tree

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Friday May, 4th is World Give Day sponsored by GiveForward. In response to this simple question, please tell us about a time when a small act of giving created lots of unexpected joy I wanted to share one of my favorite stories from my book, 1,000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire and Change Your Life.

“In October, I had an idea to participate in some Christmas giving. I shared it with my then nine year-old-daughter, who loves the Christmas holiday and finds it difficult that we don’t have a tree, stockings, or Christmas decorations like other kids. I decided it would be fun to create a mitten tree for the clients of the Dress for Success program I volunteer for. We’d find out what clients needed or wanted for Christmas, and then we’d work with my networking group of approximately fifty women to try to gather the money and gifts. I hoped my daughter would help me make the one-dimensional paper tree with paper mittens on a bulletin board that I could carry to my meeting for the women to choose from.

I gathered the art supplies for our project. Immediately, my daughter began to complain. “I didn’t volunteer for this, how soon will we be done?” she whined. We continued working despite her complaints. I distracted her by reading some of the requested items, which included dance pants for a thirteen-year-old girl. “How does someone who needs our gifts pay for dance lessons for their child?” she asked. “Maybe a scholarship,” I told her. Another woman wanted a Burger King gift cer- tificate so she and her husband could go out to dinner. My daughter commented that she didn’t think Burger King was a very special place to go out to dinner. Another woman requested a gift card for gas. My daughter continued cutting mittens and a few minutes later said, “Wow, Mommy, I am really lucky. We have a house, we have food to eat, we aren’t worried about paying our bills or buying gas. I am glad we are doing this together.” Then she chose a mitten for a grandmother raising her grandson who’d requested a winter snowsuit for the boy.

In December, a thank-you note arrived from the volunteer coordinator at Dress for Success. She told me that seventy-two women had received gifts through the mitten project. To this day, this is one of my favorite and most memorable mitzvahs.

••••

Being a catalyst to make something happen is incredibly rewarding. It requires seeing an opportunity and taking initiative. This mitzvah was gratifying on two levels: first, knowing that seventy-two women received a special gift for the holidays, and second, that my actions taught my daughter a valuable lesson. My role in this mitzvah was being the person who got the ball rolling. The coordination meant collecting and gathering the goods, but this was relatively easy and didn’t even take that much time. The outcome from these simple actions was huge. The recipients and donors alike felt blessed by the opportunity, and I had the pleasure of knowing I’d been the catalyst and a teacher.”

This post is part of a blog series inspired by World Give Day and hosted by GiveForward.  To find other posts in this series please visit www.worldgiveday.com or follow us on twitter @worldgiveday.

Many chances for mitzvahs this week

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I received a donation request from a local non profit and the front of the card had this quote:

“No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted.” Aesop – The Lion and the Mouse

So don’t forget to do the little things. They are just as important as the big things you can do to improve this world.

770) I want to start with a story from today. Today at lunch, I attended a luncheon event for a local non- profit. My friend is working there and had invited me as her guest. The luncheon was awesome and I donated to the charity. At the end, my friend told me to take a couple of the center pieces floral arrangements home. I was walking back to my car when a young canvasser approached me to tell me about her non profit – An international children’s relief organization. I stopped and listened and chatted with her for several minutes. In the end I decided not to donate to her organization since I had just donated at the luncheon. I am often not sure what to do in these situations because I can only imagine how hard it is to do any kind of soliciting on the street for an organization. I figure it’s a mitzvah just to be polite and not obnoxious to these folks. Anyway, after I walked away I turned back and asked her if she wanted to take one of the center piece bouquets I had just received for her office. She was thrilled and so were her two young business associates.

771) Referred a colleague to a local photographer that we have worked with who does amazing work.

772) Sent a client the name of a book that I thought would be very helpful to her right now.

773) Turned a class into a last minute fundraiser for Dress For Success. We raised $75.

774) Volunteered for a fall event at school.

775) Volunteered to get the coffee that was left behind for our event.

776) Volunteered to help in my son’s classroom.

777) Attended a meeting to arrange for our programming for our networking group.

Finally, I know that it’s hard to count mitzvahs for your kids or spouse generally. But yesterday, after I had finished my volunteering at school, my son remembered that he had forgotten to take a snack with him that morning. I didn’t have anything to give him so I went to the store nearby and came back with a snack for him. He said later that evening, that he had been thinking after I left the school that when I picked him up he would say “Thanks mom” like he was annoyed that I hadn’t done anything about his snack, but actually he ended up saying “Thanks mom” like I really appreciated that you did that for me. So even though I am not counting it as a mitzvah per say I guess sometimes as a mom we just do that extra thing for our kids.

Mitzvahs giving and receiving

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264) Visited with the Rabbi and the Rebbetzin, not sure what the summer will bring but I hope I can still make visits frequently. I love our morning together each week.

265) Brought food to the 3rd grade picnic and volunteered during the picnic at school. I do believe volunteering at school counts as a mitzvah.

266) Found out it was someone’s birthday today and surprised her with flowers. It reminded me of the Visa commercial where they put a price on everything and at the end one of the things is priceless. To see the surprised look on the mom’s face was priceless and I loved being the one to do it.

267) Volunteered through Dress For Success today.

Received a couple of mitzvahs back today. I hearty thank you from the woman at the school who was retiring and got flowers last week (she hadn’t been there when I had left them for her.) Someone I made food for a few weeks back donated to our synagogue in our honor. Lastly, I received a phone call telling me that a conference call I had done yesterday was excellent. I guess it’s true that the more you give the more you receive. Atleast I feel that way today.

A day of Mitzvahs

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36) Yesterday, I had two wonderful opportunities to provide mitzvahs. I volunteer at an organization called Dress for Success whose mission is to clothe and help support low income women in participating in the work force. I have been a volunteer there for more than a year as a personal shopper and a mentor. I enjoy the work immensely. Yesterday, we had a special opportunity to work with a class of women who were training to be medical administration workers. There were 8 women who were coming for hair services, personal shopping and make up. Normally, when I volunteer there are two or three volunteers and two or three clients during the same period. Yesterday, there were a close to a dozen volunteers and staff from DFSO and 8 clients so the energy and excitement as the women transformed through out the morning was absolutely terrific. I enjoyed myself so much.

37) In the evening, my 6 year old son Solomon and I volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank. It was a long drive across town to a place I wasn’t familiar with. On the way, I told Solomon what we would be doing and I guess he hadn’t understood previously that this wasn’t going to include as he said “much fun or snacks for him.” By the time we arrived at the OFB he was crying and saying he wanted to go home or just sit in the car. I encouraged him to come inside and was successful. When we got inside and learned that we would have to wear hairnets to do our job he lost it again and was inconsolable. I felt bad for him but also realized we had come across town and I really wanted to be able to volunteer. So I did what any mom might do in my situation, I bribed him. He had seen the vending machine and asked for something out of it. As I am a pretty strict mom when it comes to sweets,  I said I would let him choose something if he allowed me to stay and participate. Not only did he stay but about 10 minutes later, he decided the hairnet over his hooded sweatshirt would be okay. He proceeded to fully participate with us bagging the carrots for distribution. He got his treat towards the end of our time there. Anyway, I felt there was some irony in bribing my son with food at a food bank to perform a mitzvah.