Donation in envelope was small; the meaning behind it huge
Volunteers for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix can’t be there during the coronavirus pandemic to serve food, tutor children or work in the bike shop or thrift store. Minimal staff is on-site.
So some people have made donations online.
Among the packages of needed items that arrived one recent day was a letter. The return address was the state prison in Florence.
Inside was a check and a note on a half-sheet of lined paper: “Please accept this $10 donation. I hope it will help some.” It was signed.
Executive director Steve Zabilski has been at the agency for 23 years. He’s seen substantial donations. This letter touched him in a different way.
It reminded him of the biblical parable of the widow’s mite, in which Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem and a widow gave two coins among the larger donations. It was all she had.
Jesus told his disciples, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything.”
“It’s a lot of money for someone who’s in that environment,” Steve said. Inmates make 10 cents to $3 an hour.
“It really inspired me in a special way,” he said. He shared it with donors in his regular email update.
“With all of his challenges and all of his troubles, he’s thinking of others,” Steve said. “He’s doing something.”
Steve keeps a copy of the check and the note on his desk. He will write to John and tell him how his donation inspired him and others.
He doesn’t know John or what he did. He only knows the kindness he exhibited.
“It just goes to show you that all of us, if we choose, if it is our desire,” Steve said, “we can make the world a better place, no matter our situation.”