Article February 4, 2013 ISSUE

How our family helped with storm relief

Rick Lipsey

This past fall, I organized a food sale table on Central Park West outside our apartment building with our kids—Alexander, Claudia, Ricky, and Timothy. We went to Costco in the morning to get food and drink supplies to sell, and then the kids offered the stuff to passersby for a few hours. 

The kids had a big “HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF FUND” sign and were not shy about yelling out to potential customers to buy and contribute. I told the kids that in a few days we’d look around and find a good charity to which we’d donate the money. The kids ended up raising a net profit of about $300, but it was a $0.35 contribution that hit home.

A bedraggled man, who looked homeless, walked by the table, paused, looked back, then walked back to the table. He fished what appeared to be all the money he had from a pocket; it was a quarter and a dime, which he put into Claudia’s pink plastic money bank. We offered him a water bottle, for which we were normally asking $1. The man politely declined, saying, “Please just give me a napkin to dry my face.” 

Fast forward to the kids’ bedtime. Each night, everyone in the family mentions a person from the day whom he or she would like to thank. I said I’d like to thank the homeless man because he donated all of the money he had on him to the fund, and that was amazing. Ricky then said, “You know, he probably donated everything he had because he knows he needs help. And he realized that if he gives everything, then he will get back lots of help, because the money’s going to a place that will help the community.” Ricky’s comment reminded me, in a very real and touching way, that “… Love is reflected in love” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 17 ).

About the author

Rick Lipsey, who was a golf writer at Sports Illustrated for 20 years, lives on the upper west side of New York City.

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