last weekend, a nearby, small town lumber mill burnt to the ground. The owner had very little insurance and figured his 4th generation business was done.
A local celtic dancer of some renown decided to intervene and organized her musical friends into holding a concert and auction at the local arena. Once she began the trend, donations poured in from local and even surrounding communities & businesses. Local carpenters are volunteering to rebuild the mill with lumber donated from the last of the few remaining 'family business' mills that might normally be considered competition.
Now there is certainly nothing unusual about communities coming together in a time of need but what I thought was special and worth sharing is how they presented the news of all this aid to the mill owner and his family.
The spark of it all, the local dancer, arranged for a picture book to be made by a bunch of local 5 to 7 year old kids. The mill owner was asked to come to a meeting where a small child presented him with this picture book. As he opened it and began turning the pages he was greeted by pictures of people building a new mill, local businesses were drawn with people loading donations on a truck, and the upcoming benefit concert was portrayed in full Crayola color.
The last page had a listing, in crayon, of all the donations and activities planned, to date, that would be used to help him rebuild.
Now I didn't see this get presented to him, I only heard about it on the news and through the rumor mill but I'm pretty sure that if this were me receiving the booklet, I'd be drawn to tears for the first time since... well so long I can't remember.
Hope this brightens your day. It certainly made me feel a bit better about life in general.
