At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn’t afford, especially toys and children’s clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
“This has been the coolest bonding experience I’ve ever seen,” Borden said Tuesday morning via cellphone on the small town green. “You wouldn’t believe it.”
“The exchanging of ‘gifts and needs’ is a key activity at the heart of the curriculum, designed to help folks slowly stretch their ‘mutual aid muscles.'”
y Father’s House, a refurbished apartment attached to the former rectory of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, was recently dedicated for community service.
In the past, I have gotten presents for children from an angel tree, but were the gifts as lavish? Sheepishly, I must answer no. Certainly, I gave nice things, but frankly, I did not put as much thought nor expense in the items I bought. It brings to mind the question: do I give thoughtfully and lavishly?
In Salt Lake City, two teen members of St. James Episcopal Church in Midvale, Utah have raised an incredible $800,000 for the homeless!
“What we find counterintuitively … is that the needy or the relatively less wealthy are actually more generous,” said Paul Piff, lead author of the study. “They are more giving toward other people (and) they care more about the needs of others in their social surroundings.”
Episcopal Relief & Development has reached out to the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee to offer assistance.
“Each and every one of you is a shepherd”