The joy of giving

It all started with a thousand bears. Now it's a thousand homes.

Yesterday, parents of the graduating class in The Learning Tree met to discuss the possibility of donating a house or two to Thousand Homes for Bicol project, a wholistic program to help families affected by last year's Typhoon Reming.

By unanimous decision, the parents agreed to support the project as a legacy of the graduating class. Last year, children of The Learning Tree raised funds and donated to A Thousand Bears for Bicol (TBB) project spearheaded by my friends Cathy and Hector.

Thousand Homes is as an off-shoot of the TBB project, on a more ambitious scale, that is.

When some parents learned of the Thousand Homes project in July, they broached the idea to Teacher Francie, the school's indefatiguable founder, as a practical application of the values the school teaches the children -- love for God, country (others) and self.

Not wanting to impose anything on the children, Teacher Francie presented Thousand Homes to the graduating class and asked if they liked the idea of raising funds and donating to the affected families in Bicol. It got the children so excited that they even planned of going to Bicol themselves for the turn-over of the house they were donating.

Not to be outdone, children from the lower graders are now also talking of raising funds to donate to Thousand Homes. Amazing how kids can be so passionate, they even decided to donate proceeds of this year's annual Hele Bazaar for the Bicol project.

Of course, parents have to be informed of their children's decision and so the school called for a meeting yesterday. Since I'm one of the "promoteurs" of Thousand Homes, Teacher Francie asked me to present to the parents. They were as excited as their children.

I left the meeting with so much joy in my heart and a great hope for the future. Here is a small school with a great vision -- to be able to raise up kids with genuine love for God, fellowmen and oneself.

Indeed, when it is about giving, adults have so much to learn from little children. There is always joy when you give out of the abundance of the heart.