"Pay it forward" this holiday season

It's inching closer to the holiday season, all people seem to care about recently is the lack of money they have to spend on themselves for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza - most of whom in Naperville, make a minimum income of $80,000 a year, but what about the others who don't even qualify for the minimum income average? The people who are making less than that? Recently my high school English class is focusing on "pay it forward" a concept which people could have very different opinions about. The concept being that if you were to do one act of kindness that made a major shift in a person's life, that they would than see the shift and pursue to keep it going themselves, resulting in a domino effect. Starting with one person, ending with thousands? Oprah Winfrey decided to test this theory around this time last year, and it worked. Giving every person in her studio audience one thousand dollars, a video camera and one week to change a stranger's life, and they all succeeded. Ranging from reconstructive surgery to turning $1,000 into more than $70,000 to help a critically ill man support his family of nine. These people could have taken the money and run, buying gifts for themselves, children or friends, they chose to spend the holiday cheer on those who needed it most ... the ones very few actually see. Times are hard now, the economy isn't doing its best and neither are families. Spending money is minimal but instead of buying your daughter the large amount of gifts on her list, take half the money you would spend and "pay it forward."

Maggie Newlin

senior, Naperville North High School