I’ve been running a bit more lately.
We have a 3-year old and a 10-month old, which means I rarely run in the mornings. No reason to get up BEFORE them, right? However, this past Saturday, I was awake at 6:15. For whatever reason, I just could not go back to sleep. So, I nudged my wife to let her know that I was off for a quick run.
As I’ve been doing on just about every 25 or so minute run I go on, I fired up Chris Brogan’s Human Business Way podcast. More on how Chris plays into this story in just a bit.
About 17 minutes into my run, I stopped cold in my tracks as I saw something on the sidewalk. As it turns out, the “something” I saw was a nice, new, crisp $20 bill.
After picking it up, I snapped a picture of this $20 bill (see above) and, of course, posted it to Instagram … and then shared it on Facebook and Twitter. As you can see from the comments on Instagram and Twitter, several folks had some “fun” with the fact that I was now getting paid to run. A few people on Facebook suggested that I “pay it forward” by buying coffee for people in line behind me.
That $20 bill is still sitting in my pocket. Literally. As. I. Type. This. Sentence.
Hmmm…
How I Intend To Use The $20 Bill
The reason it’s still in my pocket is mostly because I wasn’t sure what the best use of it would be. I passed a homeless person on the corner yesterday and nearly gave it to him. I thought about “paying it forward” by buying coffee for a bunch of strangers. For whatever reason, none of those options seemed … well … like the right thing to do.
Then it hit me.
On my run this afternoon, I was listening to Chris Brogan’s podcast again. When I got back home, I jumped on my laptop and read this tweet from Chris. (No, I don’t read every tweet Chris posts, but remember … he was top of mind after listening to his podcast on my run).
Bingo!
Honoring Students with Special Needs: A prom to love, honor and celebrate students with Special Needs and integrate them with their peers from over 65 San Diego high schools.
I began to watch the video showing highlights from last year’s A Night To Remember Prom (see below). I made it through the first 18 seconds before I hit the big pink CONTRIBUTE NOW button and donated that crisp, clean, brand new $20 bill.
There is a special place in my heart for our young people – ALL young people … no matter race, ethnicity, social-economic status or sexual orientation. It doesn’t matter if someone has special needs or is differently-abled. As cheesy as it sounds, children ARE our future.
Check out the video below and let me know if you have the same reaction that I just did.
Can’t see the video? Try watching here.
Moments before I hit publish on this blog post, they were $153 away from reaching their goal. $153. That’s it. Can you spare $1, $5, $10, $20 … or even $153 to make this a reality?
Let’s make this happen. Contribute now.
One last thing: I realize there are a lot of places to donate. I realize that many of you reading this now regularly give back to the community. If this is not the cause you want to support – for whatever reason – I’m okay with that … as long as you take the time and/or money to help others.
Deal?
DJ Waldow
Waldow Social
@djwaldow
