Day 17 Regifting and Showing Gratitude

Organizing a major fundraiser is a big job and having a team of people who all work equally hard is rare. Most people help based on the time they are willing to give without disrupting their lives and their own work too much. This is not to disparage anyone who helps in any way. People have busy lives. Any amount of time spent serving others is a gift to the person served AND to the person serving.

Our very successful fundraiser would not have been as successful however, without the tireless work of my colleague who organized the silent auction. It was a huge task to organize 92 silent auction item--cataloging, creating bid sheets, and managing a team to keep track of the auction on the night of the event. And then spending hours, days after the event, to deliver the the remaining items, reconcile the money, etc.

She had some very frustrating moments and with good reason, may have felt ill-appreciated. So yesterday gave her a gift. Last Christmas I received two $100 spa finder gift cards. It took me until September to even use one of them at a local day spa. I wrote a card to my colleague and let her know how grateful I was for her dedicated and selfless service and told her to go get a massage. I included the other gift card.

The look of pleasure and gratitude on her face was a truly wonderful gift to me.