Special Things Happen

A few weeks ago, I sent out an email asking people for supplies for Haiti.  I put out a box and a bit of hope.  When I came into work today, I was pleased to see that someone had added a few items.  There was a big thing of paper towels, wipes, band-aids and Tylenol.  (I felt like a moron when I was asked why we could donate Tylenol and not aspirin.  When I told this to the meeting, half the group yelled out that it was because of Reye's Syndrome.  Duh.)

Honestly, I wasn't really expecting much of anything.  I wanted people to just bring junk from home.  So I was pretty surprised when Kevin (my hiring manager) and Barbara Crow, the CEO of the Lions Eye Bank (where I work) told me that they wanted me to speak at the monthly staff meeting about my upcoming trip.  (This is where I made the Reye's snafu.)

I got up and talked at the meeting about my upcoming trip.  I told the group about how I was going to be travelling down to provide medical aide as a nurse, and that any donations -- either money or goods -- would be very welcome.  I explained that due to the disasters that followed Haiti (namely New Zealand and Japan) donations for Haiti have dropped while the need in Haiti is still very great.

At this same meeting, we had had a lady who represented our benefits provider walk us though a few things, and she had sat politely sat through our meeting.  When I told the group how Haiti still needed lots of help (perhaps more help then Japan and New Zealand needed, as they are first-world counties) she stood up, identified herself as Hatian, and asked to speak.  With tears in her eyes and her voice cracking, she spoke passionatly about her family who were living in tents.  She told us about how she didn't know if her family was even alive for three weeks.  She provided rememberances of an elder member of her family who had died from lack of medical care.  She told us how the entire country was still covered in rubble.  And she thanked me for remembering Haiti, and asked the group to do the same.  It was a very powerful moment.

I found out later that one of the people in the office (Janet) wrote the following:

I’d like to suggest that coincidence is more a matter of the good work we do and the good energy we all put out, rather than a random occurrence.  I don’t think that anyone else had the good fortune of seeing all of the pieces that went into the phenomenal occurrence at our staff meeting last night... Kevin... suggesting that the Eye Bank get behind Kim in her assistance of the Haitian people.  Barbara forwarding Kevin’s suggestion.  Kim giving us an opportunity to help others through her mission.

Is it a coincidence our first benefits rep wasn’t a ‘fit’ and that our new benefits person happens to be Haitian?  Is it a coincidence that  we happened to have our benefits person speak with us the evening that Kim shared about her trip to Haiti?  I don’t know.  What will happen as a result of all of these ‘coincidences’?  I don’t know.  I do know that  I have experienced special things happen when thoughtful people put strong thought and energy into producing something good, whether they are directing that energy together consciously or not.   For me, this is definitely one of those experiences and I thought it was worth mentioning; as we all contribute in our own way.  It’s something to think about.”

And when I walked into the office today, I found that someone had placed a box-- with a ton of goods in it, in the front room where we greet visitors.  As you can see, someone put a great deal of work into the box, and I was nearly moved to tears.