Charity Begins at Home
By Chick Moorman and Thomas Haller

“Mom, we’ve got to have a family meeting. We need to vote. We have to give our charity money to the children. We have to send it right away.”

Those excited words were uttered by eight-year-old Madison Willow, who was moved to action by viewing the tragic outcomes resulting from the recent Asian tsunami. Madison, like millions of people from around the world, had been touched by the suffering, loss, and grief of the survivors she saw on TV. But unlike many of the people who extended heartfelt charity during this special time of extreme need, Madison has experienced a regular pattern of charity in her young life that has helped her view the process of giving as more than a crisis-oriented activity.

A family meeting was indeed called by Madison’s parents following her emotional outburst. It was convened to discuss the family charity jar that sits tucked away in the kitchen, hidden at the rear of the canned vegetable shelf.

“I know it’s not time to decide who gets our charity money, but this is an emergency,” Madison explained to her parents and two younger brothers. No one in the Willow family needed convincing. They had all seen the dramatic television images of leveled homes, overturned cars, and the search for missing persons. They had watched as mothers cried for their dead children, fathers sat in stunned silence, and children wandered aimlessly, looking for evidence of anything familiar. It took less than ten minutes for the Willows to vote to send the forty-seven dollars and fifty-eight cents they had accumulated to the Red Cross to help the survivors of the tsunami.