Smile Alert!

When I take a broad view on the world, I see lots of folks just going about their day, without concern or regard for others.  In fact, I sometimes fall in to that trap myself, forgetting that people who work with the public don’t owe me anything, if I can’t be nice, why should they. I lose a little faith in humanity when I am faced with tyrant little men yelling at the world, service workers who wish they were anywhere else but at their jobs, tourists who think they own the place.

And then, along comes a humanitarian act or three that restores your faith….

It started last week, we held an event in Moab on Saturday, as part of that, I shared with the group what I was doing on Sunday – raising funds for my favorite charity.  At the end of the day, two of our trophy winners – a father and son team – donated their purse to my charity.  Made me cry, this wasn’t just a small amount, this was almost $1,000.  Another champion peeled off a couple hundred dollar bills and added to the total.

Then this week, we were fortunate enough to be around some awesome folks.  They gave up their weekend and their resources to help us have a great event.  It was more than what we generally see, we have a lot of volunteers in our industry, but no one compares to this group of people who saw it through to the end. My faith meter is moving up.

And then the kicker…another champion from our event walked up and said “Shelley, I don’t know how much I won this weekend, it doesn’t matter, I want you and Rich to keep it.  Put it to good use, you have a long trip ahead, you never know what can happen.”  When I protested, he just smiled and said, “I prayed about it, this is what I want to do.”  There is no refutation to a statement like that.

I am forever grateful and doubly blessed by the people we are surrounded by.  Each day, I strive to do the right thing, to be appreciative and understanding.  Most days I fail, I am human.  I admire so many around me for their generosity and compassion, thank you for reminding me that there is more good in our world than bad.