Giving is receiving

It is often said that when you give, you receive. You give of yourself and you receive the blessing of fulfillment. This Christmas Day, I went to countryliving.com to look up some relevant quotes on the joy of being generous and found very beautiful messages to share.

“You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving” – Amy Carmichael. “Life’s persistent and most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” – Martin Luther King Jr. “Always give without remembering and always receive without forgetting” – Brian Tracy. “We make a living by what we get.  We make a life by what we give” – Winston Churchill. “The most truly generous persons are those who give silently without hope of praise or reward” – Carol Ryrie Brink. “Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven” – Henry Ward Beecher. “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up” – John Holmes. “Charity begins at home but should not end there” – Francis Bacon. “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you” – John Bunyan. “One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone” – Shannon L. Adler.

Over the last 20 or more years, the sports section of The Philippine Star has brought cheer and joy to readers through our annual Christmas Contest. Sponsors, friends and benefactors contributed cash, food packs, sporting goods, clothing and lots of presents as prizes. When we started this tradition, the winners came to The STAR office in Port Arena to claim their prizes. We toured them around the office and printing section so their eyes were opened to how their favorite newspaper is produced. As more and more readers joined, we expanded our list of winners to 15 to 20 to 25 to finally, 30. In the last two years, we held our awarding of prizes at Starbucks in Molito Alabang. The winners came with their families and we treated everyone to Starbucks. I remember a winner left his workplace in Subic at 2 a.m. to make sure he would be on time for the awarding. Some winners had never stepped foot in a Starbucks store before. We’ve had winners take public transportation from Alaminos, Pangasinan and San Fernando, La Union to join our gift-giving. OFWs from abroad participated, too and their relatives represented them to pick up their prizes. Last year, we raised P331,000 and gave away a truckload of prizes.

Because of the pandemic, we suspended our contest this year. We wouldn’t have been able to gather our winners and their families because of social distancing and travel restrictions. It would’ve also been logistically challenging to deliver prizes to winners. Instead, we solicited donations to distribute to medical and security frontliners, the Church and the less fortunate.  Our donors were POC president Rep. Bambol Tolentino (50 packs of five kilos of rice, canned goods and noodles each), Alaska (basketballs, product packs), NorthPort (P10,000), Terrafirma (P10,000), Rain or Shine (T-shirts, caps, umbrellas, tumblers), Blackwater (Deo soap, Deo spray, Hello Glow all-natural whitening sets), San Miguel Corp. (50 food packs), PBA (basketballs, T-shirts, hard drive gadget, Hardcourt annuals), SBP (T-shirts, basketballs, pens) and Phoenix Petroleum. Our family also contributed to what was distributed in our own small way of giving. There is nothing better than sharing love this Christmas season. The Lord gave of Himself to save mankind and His Christmas gift to us is the greatest gift of all.