Merry Christmas, Michael!

When I found out I had Michael for the "Secret Service" activity, I started making a list of some of the things he likes/values:

Sports
Fitness
Diet
Exercise
History
Guns
Starbursts
Texas
His mission
Africa?
Houston/his kids

From there I tried to come up with service related to each idea. My prevailing thought was to do something related to diet/exercise because he recently had so much success losing weight with the Body for Life program. I was intrigued by the idea of coaching a youth recreation league, but then I realized that my athletic skills were a little limiting in that area. Unless I walked into a gym and offered to coach gymnastics classes for free, I didn’t really see many opportunities to work in youth athletic programs, because my areas of expertise (dance, gymnastics, and diving) don’t have “seasons” per se or “teams” that need parent coaches. Matt has been coaching a Junior Jazz team which is very cool, but again, I just don’t feel like I have the skills to coach in basketball, football or soccer (unless it was a team for 3 year olds…). Thus, I kind of ruled out the coaching option for this project.

This led me to think more about healthy lifestyle choices. I saw something in a magazine about a website where you could buy fruit, and for any amount of fruit you purchased, they would donate an equal amount of fruit to a food bank. I liked this idea because fresh fruit is part of a healthy diet, but not usually something that is available at food banks. However, I didn’t want to be stuck with a ton of fruit that I didn’t need, just so the company would donate some fruit to a food bank. I decided that I would try and buy fresh fruits and vegetables on my own and donate them to a food bank. I started looking into food banks and was impressed with an oganization, but when I contacted them, I found that they weren’t accepting fresh foods. I still wanted to do something for the food bank, so I decided that I would use my own couponing skills to compile a stockpile of foods that I could donate.

For those who aren’t familiar, the idea behind couponing is that you collect coupons over a period of time and wait for stores to have sales. When an item that you typically use is on sale, you buy as much of it as you can with your coupons, thereby lowering the price substantially from the normal selling price. For example, I always buy my cereal with coupons. I collect coupons and then wait for a cereal sale; because of this I end up spending $1.50 or less on each box of cereal that would normally be around $4.00 a box. This results in substantial savings, and I always buy at least ten or so boxes so I have a reserve stock on hand and never have to pay full price for cereal.

I decided to use this system to get the most bang for my buck as I collected food for the food bank. I started by referencing a website called www.pinchingyourpennies.com that ranks food prices at different stores every week. I used this resource to determine where I should buy what, and which coupons I should be using.  

A lot of coupons can be printed from the internet, so I would seek out and select the coupons I wanted, print them, cut them, and then organize them so I was ready for the store.

Then I went to 3-4 different stores over the course of two weeks to buy my items. Ta Da!

I finally had everything accumulated, when I started talking to one of my coworkers, Tiffany, about something she and her mom were doing together. Tiffany’s last day with my company was this past Wednesday, but she had a client that was really struggling to put food on the table. Tiffany and her mom were going to go buy some food and deliver it anonymously to the client’s house. I was touched by the idea of helping a family that I was somewhat connected to, and offered to give the food I had been purchasing to her project.

Tiffany told me that her client was a single Dad and that he had two young girls. I decided that I wanted to do something nice for them as well, so I made a couple of flower clips that could be used to adorn their hair, or as an accessory of some kind.

I brought all of the items I had to Tiffany, and she and her mom compiled everything and dropped it of to the family.

I really enjoyed using a skill that I’ve developed to help someone else, and the opportunity to do this service on Michael’s behalf. Merry Christmas to Michael, I love you.  You are a great brother, and I hope we can continue to become best friends. It is wonderful to have you as an example and source of encouragement and inspiration in my life.

And a Merry Christmas to each of you! It’s been a pleasure doing this project, and I love being a part of our family!  I love you all!

Love,
Megan :)