“Cheerful giving” comes in many forms

This is a little story about a man named John. There’s nothing unusually special about John, he’s in his late 70’s, lives on his own, and on face value he’s just another one of those ordinary people who keeps pretty much to himself. However, like so many folks we know but don’t hear a lot about, John has a good heart!

With that introduction, if you consider yourself to have a good heart, maybe something John is doing will encourage you to think about your situation, and what more you might be able to do to make this world we live in a better place.

John’s story goes like this…

After hearing about the poverty of many families in a poorer area of the town where he lives, and despite his own meagre circumstances, John decided he wanted to do something to help, albeit quite a small undertaking. He decided to collect cans and bottles under the Return and Earn scheme and then use the money to buy supermarket gift vouchers, he would then deliver them to the local school in the area to distribute to needy families as the school saw fit. That’s how John’s little “mission” started, hardly an enterprise.

John casually shared what he was doing with a friend. This friend was like-minded to John and wanted to encourage him, by chance he also had a few business connections in the hospitality industry. This resulted in the owner of two local cafes offering to place designated collection bins in his outlets where customers could dispose of their bottles and cans.

While all this was happening, other friends of John’s heard what he was doing and offered to collect cans for him, neighbours also started to offer their cans, while others offered to donate money, one friend alone was so touched that he put $300 in John’s hand. All this activity led to John placing two wheelie bins outside his home where people and neighbours can drop cans and bottles off at their leisure.

John also doesn’t drive but again, three other friends now regularly rotate to help John pick up the cans and bottles from the cafes and take them to the collection facility.

John has now been doing this for over two years and every couple of months, another friend will drive him up to the school to deliver his vouchers. John seeks no publicity or accolades, so much so that the school doesn’t even know his last name, they affectionately call him “The Can Man.”

It’s hard to say how much money John has been able to give the school through the gift vouchers but it would now add up to a few thousand dollars.

John has no plans of stopping soon and he’s now looking at the possibility of spreading the vouchers to include another local school that faces similar circumstances.

Doesn’t it gladden your heart to hear a story like this? The fact that what John is doing has encouraged so many others to join him to make it all happen is heart-warming to say the least.

How precious the Johns of this world are.