Giving back is good — and good for you, too
Steve Dorfman
From the northern reaches of Jensen Beach down south to Boca Raton, the credo that dates back to biblical times — “It is more blessed to give than to receive” — will be on full display in the most contemporary way starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
That’s when the Fourth Annual Great Give Palm Beach & Martin Counties — 24 hours of online fundraising — gets under way.
And while the tens of thousands of locals who participate will no doubt be doing so with the most philanthropic of intentions, what they may be unaware of is how much the act of giving can potentially benefit their own physical wellbeing.
For instance, the Cleveland Clinic noted that the act of giving — be it volunteering, donating money or simply providing emotional support to friends, colleagues and/or loved ones — is associated with lowering one’s own blood pressure. Let’s look at a few other ways that giving benefits the giver as much as the receiver:
Increased life expectancy
Yes, simply doing for others can help you live longer. In 1999, a study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley of several dozen elderly folks found that those “who volunteered for two or more organizations were 44 percent less likely to die over a fiveyear period than were non-vol-
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When Denise Tims found out her 6-month-old daughter, Megan, had a genetic disease that would probably kill her before she was 40, she started looking for a miracle.
And she got one — though not the one she sought.
Denise’s miracle came in the form of another little girl, a girl five years older than Megan, who had the same deadly disease — cystic fibrosis — and the same struggle to take each breath.
How Megan Tims, now 22, became “soul cysters” with Christina “Stina” Rothenburg Norberg, now 27, is rather miraculous, too.
And so is the fact that both are still alive.
“Do you have a child with CF?”
Megan had chubby cheeks when she was a baby, and she ate all the time. But when Denise picked Megan up, she could see her rib cage. At 6 months, Megan weighed just 11 pounds.
Her pediatric ian, Dr. Jonell Mahoney, told Denise: “Don’t go home and read about this … but I think she has cystic fibrosis.”
Of course, Denise did read about it, and it was bad: Cystic fibrosis affects about 30,000 Americans. It is a genetic disease that causes sticky mucus to clog the lungs, causing persistent lung infections and limiting the ability to breathe. It also blocks the body’s ability to absorb nutrients.
Babies born with CF in the 1950s usually died before they turned 6.
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