Dream Jar

I want to thank the people of the Linn County News Letter for printing our story on the front page of this week's issue. It was very humbling to see our story get front page news, knowing that the thousands of people that subscribe to this news letter will see and read our story first. Thank you so very much for offering us such a huge platform to spread our message.

Tuesday, the day that I got the news letter, was the first time that I have felt that I have accomplished a little bit more than I did last year. That is my goal from year to year, accomplish more than I did the year before. So it was a "puff my chest out" moment, however, I did this in the privacy of my own home.

Now on to today's topic....Dream Jar.

In our house, we have a mason's jar that sits above the sink in our kitchen. The jar is labeled "Dream Jar". Every time I have spare change in my pocket, no matter how little the amount, I put it in the Dream Jar. The jar is all coins, most of them pennies and nickles. I have the Dream Jar for a couple of reasons and the other night, I finally got to explain those reasons to my kids.

One reason is that we are barely a paycheck to paycheck family, just like most people in this wonderful economy. There is no room for extras, so we have to save our change to have a little extra fun. Often times we cash in the Dream Jar when we need something around the house or a little extra gas money for the week, so we really haven't got to use the Dream Jar for it's initial purpose.

The other reason was to teach my kids a lesson on how every little bit always counts. I used money as the metaphor in this case, but the meaning was much deeper. I explained to the kids that every penny, by itself, is only worth one cent, but it's worth something! 2 pennies together are worth 2 cents, twice as much as one and 100 pennies equal a dollar, 100 times as much as one. I told them that often times we feel as if we are worthless and can never amount to anything. What we need to realize is that we all have worth and by working together we can increase our worth and eventually achieve our dreams. That's why I call it the Dream Jar.

I explained to the girls that the same is true when we fundraise for JDRF. Some people can only donate a couple dollars, but the more people that donate a couple dollars, the closer we get to our dream....a cure.

I don't always play psychological games with my kids, but in this case, they seem to understand. As a matter of fact, Micheala came home today from school excited about the fact that her classmates are going to try and raise funds for JDRF. She understands that if her first grade classmates all bring a few pennies, that it will eventually add up to a dollar. That gets her very excited.

I have often stressed to my committee that we could all go "big game hunting" and try to locate 100 people to donate $130, but we would be wasting our time and would be missing the point of spreading the message about diabetes to as many people as possible. I would much rather find 13,000 people to donate a dollar. Like I have said many times before, this isn't just about raising funds.

So in my mind, I have a Dream Jar. I work everyday to fill it with pennies and nickles. I will empty our Dream Jar on February 25th at the Walk for the Cure, then I will start filling the next Dream Jar. The dream, of course is to have a cure.