This week I was once again reminded of the gift of giving back. I was speaking for the national intern conference of a professional services firm. A tradition of this conference is for all the participants to engage part of their time in giving back. This year the participants split into three groups to cook dinner for three Ronald McDonald Houses in Chicago. At 1:30pm, the participants parted in three different directions with a mission to organize, grocery shop, cook and be ready to serve-up a meal by 5:30pm. It is amazing what many hands can do and the good they can create in such a short time. One of my three presentations for this conference was just before we left on this mission. I suggested to the participants that they could choose to simply mechanically go through the experience or that they could fully immerse themselves into the experience. Fully immersing themselves would be knowing that in making this meal they were possibly delivering the one bright spot of the day for families who were dealing with the challenge of very sick or injured children in the nearby hospital. Everyone of these college students rose to the occasion and found out the real perspective of giving back … that is that giving back puts everything in perspective!
