Giving creates friendships

Friendships can come from the least expected places. Around 1993,

I was asked to join the Monterey YMCA board after participating in their Community Support Campaign while I was still in my 20s. I met Brad and Gene several years later while serving on the Y Board of Managers, and we became lifelong friends. The three to-be friends were brought together by a common goal of supporting youth on the Monterey Peninsula and inspired by Brad, a passionate Executive Director.

In 2010, I was fortunate enough to travel with my two friends. Brad, the executive director of the

YMCA of the Monterey Peninsula at the time, Gene, the incoming volunteer chair of the YMCA, and myself, that year’s chair of the YMCA. The destination was 11 days in Peru.

It all started over a post-YMCA meeting martini at Lallapalooza. We thought it would be a fun idea to take a buddy trip to Peru and Bolivia to see sights like Cusco, Machu Pichu, Iquitos, and La Paz. While the trip was non-YMCA in nature, with Brad’s connections in the organization, we were fortunate enough to connect with the National Director in Peru at the time and spent a great day visiting three separate projects the Y was doing in Lima at the time.

Time, Talent, and Treasure are all valuable

Giving is not always about money. That day was eye-opening. The project that stood out the most for me was in a place where our driver, who was born and raised in Peru, had never stepped foot on. It was in what is called “Pueblo Jovenes,” or, some would say the slums of Peru. Here, we visited concrete buildings with no indoor sewers and the only running water was a spigot that was shared by multiple shanty concrete buildings in the area. Inside one of these buildings was the YMCA project where local moms from the surrounding area came to sew catholic school uniforms and sell them. With the proceeds raised from their time and talent for sewing, they would help pay to build a second story on the building. This second story would be used for a school their children would attend so they could continue their education and presumably stay away from the stuff unattended kids can get into. The program was self-supporting, and in fact, all three projects we saw that day did something good for the community and, in return, generated enough revenue for the program to keep going.

I think when the average person hears about giving, they automatically go straight to the thought of money. These moms didn’t have any extra money to “donate,” but they donated their time and talent to help their children and their friend’s children, and in return, they helped build a better community for all living in this impoverished area of Peru. Time and Talent are donations that can be made by almost anyone and are valued the same as giving money in many situations.

We are very generous people here in the United States, and we can see examples of this all around us each and every day if we just look for it. There are so many opportunities to “participate,” as my good friend Gene loved to say. “Don’t worry if you can’t give a lot of money to an organization. Your time and talent are sometimes the most valuable things we can give. Get involved in any way you are able; the community needs you, and it needs your most valuable asset, your time, and your talent.”

Today, every employee at Blue Adobe Mortgage continues to contribute Time, Talent, and/ or Treasure to helping our community. To see some of the organizations we are involved with, visit our website at www. blueadobemortgage.com.

At Blue Adobe Mortgage, we know the difference between buying a building and building a community.

Article contributed by Mike Boerlin of Blue Adobe Mortgage - Loan Officer, Fly Fisherman, Rancher. You can reach Mike via email at: info@ blueadobemortgage.com.