1. Read: The book The Seven Faces of Philanthropy by Russ A. Prince and Karen M. File identifies seven reasons why people become involved in projects like our service event.
   They are:  
   • a sense of being a part of a community.
   • a sense of commitment to ones religious beliefs.
   • a practical tax/estate benefit.
   • a sense of civic responsibility/socially accepted behavior.
   • a sense of giving back in gratitude.
   • a sense of tradition/something one has always done.
   • a sense of it being the “right thing” to do.
   
   Discuss: Is it possible that the reasons for giving will differ from circumstance to circumstance? From person to person? Why or why not? Is the reason one might have for giving important to the person or cause receiving the benefit of the gift or service? Why or why not? Why might it be difficult to site just one reason for giving for participating in our service event?
   
    
2. Read: The story is told of a poor blind man whose only job was to gather water for the King and his court from the artesian well located at the edge of the kingdom. The pay for doing this bought him only enough food for that day. In order to have something to eat, each day the blind man would faithfully take his cane and make his way to the castle to take up the heavy water urn. Then he would walk to the well on the outskirts of town to fill it. Once filled, he would hoist the heavy urn with its contents onto his back and return to the castle. For the past few months though, he would be met at the door by the king’s guard. The guard would admonish him for not filling the urn to the brim. Each time the blind man would apologize and wonder to himself why what he had filled did not remain so.  He secretly vow to himself that he would be more careful not to allow the water to slosh out of the urn as he travel back to the castle. But each day, no matter how carefully he carried the urn, the results were the same. Precious water mysteriously disappeared along the way back to the castle.
   
   One day after the blind man had returned to the castle with yet another unfilled urn, one of the guards began to beat him with his rod. “You foolish man you; don’t you know that this water is precious and much needed by everyone who lives in the castle?”
   
   The king, hearing the commotion, asked one of his aides to check into the matter. The aide returned and reported to the king what had taking place. Curiosity led the king to look into the matter. The following day when the old blind man appeared to once again take up his task of gathering the water, the king met him near the castle gate. “Old man,” he said, “let me see the urn that you use to carry the water.” The old man set the urn down on the floor and waited. “Just as I thought,” said the King looking closely at the urn, “this urn has a small hole in the bottom of it.” The blind man felt for the hole and locating it he humbly apologized to the King for using an unfit urn to carry the water. “Show me the way that you come and go!” commanded the king ignoring his apology.
   
   The old man walked to the door and with his keen sense of direction he pointed toward his daily route. As the king looked out in the direction of his pointing, he gasped. “Oh my,” he exclaimed. “I know that you are blind, old man, but if you can imagine the most beautiful and brilliant of flowers strewn along the side of a road, you will have imagined only half of the beauty I see! It seems that as you walk back to the castle each day with a full urn of water that which seeps through the small hole in the bottom of the urn has watered the dormant seeds lying in the ground. While you were made to feel that you weren’t giving enough, what you gave more than meets our needs both for our bodies and for our hearts. You have given us so much more, than just the water we drink!”
   
   Discuss: We are all being asked to contribute to our service event. What are some ways we can meet a heart-need as well as a physical one? In what ways are both equally important? How can we convince our peers that whatever they are willing and able to donate will certainly be helpful?
   
    
3. Read:  At special times during the year you may receive a gift from someone. It could be a birthday gift, a holiday gift, or a gift for some other special occasion. Usually when someone gives us a gift, we know them and are able to “thank” them for the gift. This makes you, as well as the giver of the gift, feel good. You may even begin to think about how you can return the favor. When we are asked to donate something it too is usually for a special reason or a special time of the year. But when we donate something it is usually to a cause or an organization and not to a specific person. So it is often unlikely that we will know the person or persons who receive our donations. Likewise, we probably won’t be “thanked” by them or receive anything back from them because they might not know who gave them the gift.
   
   Discuss: In what ways might our service event be more like a donation than a gift? More like a gift than a donation? To donate means to give without expecting to receive anything back. Why might it be difficult for some to donate knowing that they will not receive so much as a ‘thank you”? What are some other things we might “receive” as a result of our donating to our drive?
   
    
4. Read: Do you know that the Golden Rule is taught to children and adults in almost every part of the world? It suggests how people should treat each other. Do you know what the Golden Rule is? It is treat others the way you would want to be treated. This year, at Free Ed Middle School, each room captain conducted a contest to come up with a school slogan for their service event. When the final votes were counted, the slogan chosen for their service event was, “Help others as you would want them to help you.”
   
   Discuss:  How is this slogan, chosen by the students at Free Ed Middle School, like the Golden Rule? If the service event at Free Ed Middle School is to collect canned goods to give to their local food bank, how might this slogan help everyone decide what types of canned goods to donate?
   
    
5. Read: Eleven-year-old Hannah Taylor is a “hero” to many people. Hannah   believes no one should have to eat out of a garbage can. When she was five years old, she saw someone doing just that -- the first homeless person she'd ever seen. She knew then that she had to do something. Soon after that she started the Ladybug Foundation. It is a non-profit organization that does all it can to help put an end to homelessness. Hannah has traveled throughout her native Canada speaking and spreading her message of hope and need to thousands of people. She also meets with leaders of businesses and convinces them to help. To date, the Ladybug Foundation has helped raise over one million dollars. Much of the money Hannah raises comes from her over 2000 Ladybug jars -- red jars painted to look like ladybugs. These jars are set on countertops in stores and restaurants all across Canada during the month of March. They encourage people to share their change to “make a change”.
   
   Discuss: How might the story of Hannah show us that we are never too young to care; never too young to do something?  In what ways might our service event show our willingness to help out and make a change for the better? Hannah used jars decorated like ladybugs to draw attention to her project. What might we be able to do to draw attention to our service event?
   www.DoSomething.org
   
    
6. Read: Cynthia’s family has served meals in the local mission during the holidays for the past five years. Cynthia says that she can’t recall a time when they didn’t do this. “I guess it’s one of our family’s traditions,” she said smiling. Abe’s family has always contributed toys for children around the holiday season. “We all have to give some of our allowance to help buy presents to put in the collection boxes in the stores. Even though we don’t always like giving up our allowance, it’s fun to shop for the gifts we give,” Abe admits.
   
   During the holiday season, Catherina’s parents take turns ringing the bell for the Red Kettle placed in front of Hank’s Supermarket. “For the last two seasons, I have been able to ring the bell, too! It’s fun to wish everyone Happy Holidays.” This year, for the very first time, Jamille’s family donated enough money to serve ten homeless people who came to the local soup kitchen to eat a meal. “I think my parents are going to do this every year from now on. I know that I plan to donate enough of my own money next year to feed two more!” Jamille proudly explains.
   
   Discuss: In what ways is having traditions like these a good thing? Why do you think that these children seem to be so happy about being a part of their family’s traditions? How might our service event become a tradition at our school?
   
    
7. Read: Ryan could hardly believe it when his teacher told him that millions of starving children live right here in the United States. She said that approximately two out of every ten children who lived right here in their own city go to bed each night not having had enough to eat. “That doesn’t seem possible.” Ryan thought to himself. Looking around the room, he raised his hand. “You’re telling me that there might be two or three children right here in our own class that don’t have enough to eat at night?”
   
   “That’s right.” his teacher replied.
   
   Ryan shook his head. How could the city in which he lived have such a problem as this? Later, that day as he walked through the school cafeteria and stood in line awaiting his turn, he looked around at the faces of his classmates and wondered just who these kids in need could be. He decided that he couldn’t really tell just by looking at them and he wondered to himself, “What can I do to help?”
   
   Discuss: Way back in the 17th Century, Jonathan Swift knew about the difficulty some people have in realizing the truth of poverty. He said “Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.” Why might it have been so difficult for Ryan to believe that the lack of food was such a problem in his own community as well as the world? Why isn’t it always easy to tell who is in need? In what ways is our service event an attempt to answer Ryan’s question, “What can I do to help?
   
    
8. Read: Some food shoppers take the time to read the nutrition labels found on food cans and packages. They want to be sure that they are getting good nutrition from the food they buy. Others are less concerned about the nutritional value of the food they buy. They buy the food that they like without considering whether or not it is good for them. For the more than 840 million people in the world who are malnourished and don’t get enough to eat reading nutrition labels and looking for food that they like is not an option. Many of these people have little or no food to eat and little or no clean water to drink. In Niger for example, children often only have wild leaves, husks, and grass to eat. In Sudan children often resort to eating bugs in order to survive.
   
   Discuss: For most of us, eating well is still an option. Why is it important that we eat nutritional food? As we become involved in our service event what are some of the things that would be important for us to think about? How will our drive help to overcome hunger in our community and our world? 
   
    
9. Read: Often when someone cares for us or gives us something, we feel a need to care for them or give them something in return. In this way we form little circles of caring and giving. There is another way of caring and giving that is more like a line. This way of caring or giving is called serial reciprocity. Here when someone does something nice for us, we do something nice for someone else. They in turn, do something nice for someone else… and on and on it goes resulting in a continual line of caring and/or giving.
   
   Discuss: In what ways might our being a part of our service event result in a circle of caring and giving? How might our being a part of our service event result in the start of a serial reciprocity chain; a line of people caring and giving to others? Is it possible that it our participation in our drive could result in both a circle and a line (like the figure eight perhaps)? Why or why not?
   
    
10. Read:  Have you ever made a promise you didn’t intend to keep? Have you ever made a promise and then something happened that you were unable to keep it? Were you ever promised something and that promise was not kept? How did that make you feel? Did you think about how unfair it was to be promised something and then not have it happen? What are the chances that promises you make but don’t intend to keep (or promises you made that had to be broken) might have a similar, if not the same effect, on the other person as it had on you? Sometimes we say things just because we want to be nice. Sometimes we say things because we think it is the right thing to say, but we really aren’t fully committed; our intentions are good, but we fail to follow through. When things get tough, when we feel overwhelmed, or when something better comes along, it’s easy to “forget” our promises. Someone once said “when all is said and done, more is said than done”.
    
    Discuss: Is appealing to a “sense of fairness” a good way to motivate people to do something good for those in need? Why or why not? Why might it be easier to talk about doing something than actually doing it? What can we do to encourage each other to not only make “promises/commitments” for our service event, but to also keep them?