As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops to a balmy 70 degrees, the holiday season is full speed ahead. As we keep our focus on the reason for the season at our Christ-centered campus, we can also reflect on the ways our diverse employee population honors faith and family through service projects.
Although commercialism and materialism can be distractions, people’s hearts open in this season of giving. Agencies providing community service experience an uptick in donations of time and money. Countless ways exist to share in the spirit of giving locally. Worship, prayer circles, gospel playlists, self-reflection, and gratitude journals are just a few ways to keep our faith prominent.
The spirit of kindness and giving is reflected in diverse ways across world religions. The Jewish tradition of Tzedakah (literally meaning righteousness) involves compassion and empathy in the donation process and is seen as a form of social justice. Christians speak to the concept of stewardship in their giving practices, offering alms, and relating the parable of the Good Samaritan. Those of the Muslim faith engage in Sedaqah, voluntary giving, and Zakah, obligatory giving, and respect the holy month Ramadan by providing for those less fortunate. Hinduism reflects giving as an act that is done for its own reward and considers charity to be a duty, as in acts of anna dana — offering food and water.
It’s the perfect time to sort through gently used toys and clothing and set aside donations for local thrift stores. After all, if you participate in gift exchanges, you’ll need the space for those new acquisitions. Children of all ages benefit from culling their collections and doing their part to give. Holiday “adoptions” of children and families connect volunteers in meaningful ways. People appreciate receiving something brand-new to open and cherish. But what really resonates is knowing others care. Try the Angel Tree from Salvation Army at a local mall if you are looking for this kind of service project.
Card and letter-writing campaigns for deployed service personnel is another project for all ages. Need some tips on what to write in a card or letter? Check out operationgratitude.org, a Southern California-based agency offering a variety of project ideas. Retirement home residents also appreciate cards and letters. Write a few letters and create some blank cards for the residents to personalize and send. Spending an afternoon talking to residents and learning about their holiday traditions is an amazing gift of time.
Food drives, sock drives, and toiletry drives allow large populations to participate in a project. Try challenging another group to meet a specific goal and celebrate by item, weight, or other metric and post the progress where all can see. SAC Health is one local organization that accepts donations for its food pantry. Check out the SAC Health website for details.
A countdown calendar can take on more than just noting how many days left until a specific event. Just create a list of activities and complete one each day. These can be simple, non-monetary activities, like returning a shopping cart to the parking lot corral, letting someone in front of you in line, donating old blankets and towels to an animal shelter, or dropping off some book donations to the local library. One activity can be creating the list of things to do for the countdown!
Let’s all share and celebrate the spirit of giving, not only during the holiday season but all year long.
