I held the insulin vial high above my head where the light
from the gym windows could just catch the liquid left within.
“This is insulin.
Your bodies make insulin all day long.
Believe it or not, your body needs insulin to live. My boys have Type 1 Diabetes. Their bodies do not make insulin. Just days without this…and they can’t be
alive anymore.”
I gently shake the bottle to make my point. Their eyes were bright with interest. I had them.
“Thankfully, we’re able to inject this insulin into their
bodies, and they can live a normal life just like you and me. But there is a catch. This bottle of insulin is very
expensive. This little vial alone costs
about $150. Our family goes through a
bottle of insulin about every five days.
We are very lucky we have good insurance so we can afford to keep our
boys alive and healthy.”
I pointed to a map bright on the screen projected by the
overhead.
“This is Haiti. And
over here? This is Africa. When a child is diagnosed with Type 1
Diabetes in these countries, their family almost always can’t afford the
insulin. Do you understand what that
means?”
The children nodded solemnly.
“All they need to live are several drops of this very
special liquid. A lot of times bad
things happen and there is nothing we can do about it. But in this case, that isn’t true. We all can help! Even if we can only help one child, wouldn’t
our efforts be worth it?”
Children are humble, loving, pure souls. They have a knack for empathy. When I asked them if they’d be
willing to bring in $1 or more on Valentines Day to help these children live,
they cheered. When I told them their $1
would also buy them a pass to wear their favorite silly or fun hat to school
that day too, they were beside themselves with happiness.
Two weeks later I walked around the school collecting
envelopes thick with money. Each teacher had
a story.
“This student’s family has nothing. They are barely making it and they handed me
a $20 bill. I tried to explain to them that $1 would be enough, but they insisted.”
“That student over there handed me $40. Her parents said they would match any amount
of money she was willing to give of her own.
She gave it all.”
“Hi Mrs. Schuhmacher!
I gave money for in-su-lin!!! I’m
helping a kid in Africa be alive!”
This is the effort it took me:
5 minutes to talk to the students about the campaign.
20 minutes to prepare envelopes with attached class lists to
hand out to the teachers.
20 minutes to put together a flier for the students to bring
home to their families.
30 minutes to print the fliers and collate them for each
class.
1 hour to collect and count the money.
Two hours and 15 minutes of my time, and what benefits did
it reap?
16+ years of life for a child.
Please don’t sing my praises. I didn’t do anything that any of you couldn’t
do.
I writing this to show everyone within my reach that with very minimal effort, amazing
things can come to pass. If we all do
something little, our little efforts unite into a tidal wave of help.
Look what the children of our Elementary School did!
Today I dropped off 450 homemade chocolate chip cookies to
the boys’ school. On each class plate, I
pinned this note:
Dear Teachers and Students,
Our Valentine's Day caps fundraiser was a fantastic
success! The (school name) community
raised $1000 to put towards insulin for children in developing countries. That is over sixteen and a half years of life
for a child!
As with everything in life, your actions will have
consequences. I know we often think of
consequences as a bad thing, but sometimes our actions reap good consequences
too. In that spirit, I wanted to say
thank you for your kind donations by sending chocolate chip cookies your
way. I hope in the future this
experience will fuel your desire to do more good in the world. Many small acts of kindness can make a huge
difference. Look at the difference we
made!
Congratulations on a job well done!
All our love and adoration,
Meri Schuhmaher and Family
