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Here we are a few days into our Illuminate the Darkness of Dementia campaign, and we’ve had several donations, and people coming forward to help us meet our $50,000.00 matching donor by Thanksgiving of which is November 28. So, just to kind of keep us going forward, I wanted to share a story of being kind that happened here within Gianna Homes by our one of our staff over the weekend. Our HR Manager had heard that one of our employees needed to bring her children here from Africa, and first of all she needed time off, and just a coordinating of all of that, and just the challenges that that was going to present in her life, and her ability to work and so forth. So, our HR Manager just got thinking about it, and after work texted this employee and said, you know, “I have beds, do you need beds for,” she was two sons that she needs to bring here from Africa.
It was beautiful because that employee said, “I was just thinking that, where were my kids going to sleep, and then you texted me,” and she said it was just like one of those God moments, right? We probably all have those and when we get this sense of, “Oh.” You know what, something triggers us. I should do that. I should reach out. I should do an act of kindness. Give somebody a phone call. We all have those moments, right? So, this happened to be just one of those beautiful moments, and then the beautiful thing was, is that our HR Manager gave up her Saturday afternoon with her husband, and they went and borrowed a pickup from another employee, delivered the mattresses, and box springs, and all the bedding to this staff person’s home or her apartment.
It was just this beautiful outpouring that I was just blessed to be a part of and hear about, and that the staff had done this for each other. But, I think the thing that caught me was when I was being told this story, this employee just lit up and just got really quiet as she said, “But we received a gift in the giving, and the giving their gift back to us is that we knew we had made a major difference in her life,” and this employee had said, “You gave me something of that was good, the bed that was in good shape. It was a beautiful mattress. It was beautiful bedding,” and she said, “I didn’t expect that.” Then she said, “I didn’t know you cared about me. I didn’t know you cared about me.” Isn’t that something we all ponder or we all wonder. Does anybody care about me?
I believe the statistics are at least 90% of people in the United States, Americans, deal with loneliness. I think that’s just a tragedy that we have in our culture and our time. I’m sure we all know a neighbor, a friend, a family member that deals with loneliness, and just stepping up to pay him a visit, bring him something, a baked good or something like that. Reaching deep to be kind to somebody else is so important. But again, the gift that was given in return was just the sense of our HR Manager and her husband and their giving, that they felt that they’d been given a gift of this incredible gratitude, and that they had really met a need and their generosity, the gift of their time, and the gift of two beautiful beds for this employee’s children. So, that’s just kind of, Anna had shared with you, that we have been doing this campaign here at Gianna Homes this year about being kind, paying it forward.
I just thought that was a beautiful story I wanted to share with all of you today, and again, reaching out, we have this $50,000.00 matching donor, and just really needing your help, your support. Your gift makes a difference. It makes a difference in the lives of the residents in our care here, but also all of the staff. We have many immigrant staffs here at Gianna Homes that have families back in Africa, Ethiopia, all different countries. We are also creating opportunity and supporting their families as well. So, I just wanted to share that with you.
I read something this week. I’m kind of, right now, reading a lot with author Ann Kampala, and she’s just a beautiful author. I’m encourage you to pick up some of her work if you haven’t. But, in one of her books she had was giving some statistics about the return on the investment of our kindness. So, I’m just going to read you a couple of those because I thought, well they really kind of did something for me and I thought, hey, maybe this’ll be something that our donors and friends here would love to hear as well.
So, she was saying that those people who perform five acts of giving over a six week period are happier than those who don’t give at all. When people give, it has been shown that there is a reduction in their stress hormone levels, which don’t we all need that? They have lower blood pressure, and they have increased endorphins, which those happy, kind of happy emotions that we get, and that acts of kindness reduce anxiety and strengthen the immune system. We’re definitely in that season of the year when we can all use an increase in our immune system function as well. Five random acts of kindness in a week can increase happiness for up to three months later.
Isn’t that phenomenal? I don’t think there’s any drug or anything else that we could do that would have that kind of benefit or return on investment. Right? Surgeon writes, he gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels, and it’s just something maybe to ponder. Ponder as you’re considering, and giving a gift, and donating towards Gianna Homes in our Illuminate the Darkness campaign right now. But, as you’re considering giving something to Illuminate the Darkness of residents and people here, maybe ponder what may be given back to you to illuminate something in your own life, I leave you with that today. I will be doing a video twice a week. So, this is again, just grassroots and I appreciate your time, and attention, and your caring for all of us here at Gianna. God bless and have a great day.