A Man of Action

Snick is very excited for this weekend. Yes, we are going to a birthday party this afternoon, but that's not what has his spirits soaring. This Sunday night he and SSB are going to a World Vision banquet and he can't wait.

Three Christmases ago when Snick was 6 we somehow ended up watching one of those help-save-the-fly-covered-kid specials one night. You know the ones. The ones that most people flee the room from or turn the channel to anything, even PBS or the Womens channel, to avoid. Not us. Not this time. I thought since it was Christmas it would give the kids a chance to think about giving instead of getting. Change their focus a little. We sat and watched and it was very heart-wrenching

There were some very sad stories about kids who lost their parents to AIDS and had to work to survive. In one story about a brother and sister the grandparents died, then the dad, then a brother and then the mom got sick. The two kids worked enough to send her to a hospital, but she died there. The hospital only sent back her clothes so that is what they buried and went visit her grave. Ugh! But through story after story about orphans and hunger and death, the kids sat in stony silence. No one moved or commented. A few tears may have slid down some cheeks but they were quickly wiped away.

Snick seemed the most unimpressed. He watched and took it all in but kept a very blank look on his face. This wasn't, and still isn't, unusual. We're used to this look. I thought I'd give him a break, he WAS only in first grade and its not like he could really save anyone with his $1.50 a week allowance anyway.

About half-way through he asked if he could write down the toll free number that was at the bottom of the screen. I said yes and got him some paper. He already had it mostly memorized and wrote it down without much looking. Then he wrote down the website also.

We watched a couple more stories and then he asked for more paper to write a letter. In big, 6-year-old scrawl that took up the whole paper he wrote: "Your life must suck. No mom. No dad. Only a gramma or grampa. Watching you makes Snickety sad. From Snickety. To: (blank)" Then he drew a big heart.

He got an envelope out of the desk drawer and put his letter in it and then got all of his dollars out of his piggy bank and put that in too. On the TV they said it only costs a dollar a day to sponsor a child so he figured out that since he had $31 saved up he could help someone for a whole month. He sealed it up and wrote our address in the corner.

SSB came home at about that time and watched with us and saw what Snick was doing. He praised him for his big heart and then tried to explain to him that we would probably have to send a check. Snick had no idea what a check even was, and as SSB was explaining the banking system to him he just went over and started dialing the phone and called World Vision. Enough stalling. While we all sat there feeling sad and sorry or trying to be practical, he was the only one that actually did anything about it. SSB took the phone to talk to them for him. Snick then became the proud sponsor of Foday, a 7-year-old boy in Sierra Leone.

If it had been me that called World Vision, the thing that I don't think I could even fake is how humble he was about it. As we all sat in amazement at his generosity and caring he just went on upstairs to watch cartoons. It was no big deal to him. To him it was just something needed to be done.

Now he gets letters every month, not from the kid, but from the organization. There is always a calamity that needs to be taken care of. I have started keeping them from him because he wants to send extra money all the time. He got hold of one last summer though. This one was orange and had "CHILD KILLER" across it with a picture of a mosquito. A child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. Well. Snick couldn't let that happen. He read the whole thing from front to back, top to bottom then decided he was going to send some of his own money for malaria medicine. He marked the $30 donation box. SSB tried to talk him down to $10 because it would his own money, not our credit card like the automatic monthly donation. They went back and forth, discussing and disagreeing and somehow in the end he convinced his dad to let him give $50, not $30. Don't ask me how it happened, I wasn't there. But I sure wish I had a tape recording of THAT conversation.

I am curious to see what happens Sunday night. I told SSB to NOT take the checkbook and credit cards with him but I'm afraid if he does that the only alternative Snick will give him is to bring an actual child home instead.