Our thanks as campaign continues
Over 24 years, The Arizona Republic has raised and disbursed more than $60 million to Arizona non-profits that help children and families, boost education, aid domestic-violence victims and support the elderly.
Our Season for Sharing campaign covers 100 percent of administrative costs, so every penny goes to those helping those in need. (Giving continues year-round, but donations made through Jan. 31 are credited to the 201718 campaign. The online donation form is at sharing.azcentral.com, or you can clip out the coupon on Page 4A.)
A few weeks ago, I sent an email thanking longtime donors and shared
some of what their gifts had helped provide. Many people wrote me back, thanking me for thanking them — and thanking us for helping make a difference in our community.
One wrote to say that his family had already donated, thanked me for thanking him and shared that if “memory serves,” they had donated every year since Season for Sharing had begun in 1993. He asked whether we could check.
Now, you’d think that a giant information company with a ton of data, technology and archives could answer Matthew’s simple question. Not so much. System changes, new procedures, blahblah-blah made it not so easy. But I loved that Matthew was so glad to have been a part of helping all these years, and all he asked was a simple question.
Fortunately, The Republic’s self-proclaimed “data pack rat” Larry Husband was the human link through all those years. He was able to fact-check and confirm that longtime subscriber and allaround kind person Matthew had contributed to Season for Sharing since 1995 (as far back as Larry could find). In fact, his family has given at least $30,000 to help those in need through the fund. Wow.
I learned all this because I said thank you, receiving a gift from Matthew in return: the reminder that there are kind and generous people all around us, quietly helping, and that it’s always good to say thank you. Thank you to Larry for finding the answer.
Every action we take, every choice we make, has ripples for good or for not. I was able to thank Matthew for reminding me, and for making me smile to think of all the ripples of good he’s sent in our community over the years.