I don’t know about your week, but mine was pretty amazing because I got to serve others and you probably know that there aren’t many feelings that are as good as contribution and connecting with other human beings.
How everything started
It all started last year, while I was still in the US, and one day I woke up and thought to myself “I want to pay it forward today and help out a few families”.
Without thinking too much about it (I always love to help out) I went out and spent $82 on organic fruits, vegetables and a cool pumpkin butter (organic as well) from the local farmers market.
There’s no need to tell you how much those $82 meant to me in a time where I did not know what to do with my life and I just started blogging full time for only about 3 weeks, plus I had a debt of $3,000 to pay off.
By the evening, I managed to pack everything and, together with Roswitha, we left the cool packages in front of three houses that we knew had kids – it felt amazing!
What happened this year
This year, we wanted to do something similar and don’t wait until it’s Christmas because it’s too mainstream and people need to eat now as well.
Together with Roswitha and a good friend, Andreea, we decided to get started, but we also created an event on Facebook just in case some more people would love to join. In under 7 days more than 30 people joined the event (with just little marketing) out of which 12 actually met with us and gave us money.
Two of them decided to help us even more and they joined us in our “adventure”.
We managed to raise enough money to feed 12 families and to also help the local farmers because about 80% of everything that we bought was from the local farmers market.
This year, however, we did not leave the food in front of the houses, we decided to go at those families that need it the most. We got in touch with a teacher from a close-by village and she took us to the families in need that also had kids.
I am not going to lie to you, it was heartbreaking at times, but the thought that those few people had something to eat for 2-3 days makes me smile. We met beautiful children and wise people that are poor, but some of them so confident and with so much faith in God – it amazed me.
Three families did not even have electricity, but thank God it was at least warm inside their house.
It was a life changing week, I met a lot of wonderful people, especially the teacher who prepares breakfast and serves tea to her students each and every day because some don’t have anything to eat at school. These are the real heroes!
Here are some photos from our little project:
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What’s next?
Tomorrow we’re going to collect letters for Santa from those kids and other kids that need us together with the teacher and we will do everything we can to deliver happiness, smiles and delicious food once again this Christmas.
If you live in Romania and would love to join us, just get in touch and we’ll figure something out.
Besides the “Letters for Santa”, which is not our project, we will do another round of donations and shopping sometime before Christmas so that we can impact their lives in the best way possible.
Through this little project, I’ve reminded myself about the importance of giving and about how much of an impact $25 bucks can have on someone else’s life. Amazing!
Got a pay it forward story to share? Leave a comment below!
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