Giving Back This Christmas


Attempting to make a list and check it twice…

Leading up to Christmas, our families asked Doug and I for our lists. After procrastinating for a bit, we sat down to curate our must haves. And guess what? It tough. And by tough I mean that we had a difficult time coming up with multiple items that we would like. I think it’s so easy to forget how much ‘stuff’ you really have. We are often consumed by consuming and lose track of just how much agency we attribute to materials items. We tried to recount items we received the year before and had trouble listing any physical object (the ones we remembered were experiences we had been given).

So, it was in that semi-embarassing moment that we decided to not give each other gifts this year. Instead, we thought we would take the money we would normally spend on one another and donate it to a non-profit organization. We wanted to take the opportunity to help someone that could really need it.

I was chatting about all this with the manager of the Grand Rapids Tommy Hilfiger (by the way if you ever go to this location make sure to ask for Tonya-she is such a helpful resource on all things Tommy not to mention a wonderful, fun, and kind person). She mentioned as a company, Tommy Hilfiger is very focused on partnering/contributing to various non-profits. We decided to collaborate together for the holiday to get the word out about the importance of giving back especially in this season of shopping.

Doug and I chose to donate to Save The Children which is an organization that Tommy Hilfiger does a lot of work with. Save The Children is an international organization that focuses on providing a healthy start for every child and advocating for them in terms of their rights, quality of life, and relief when crisis of any kind arises in their area. Through the simple act of sponsoring a child, you can pour into the life of a specific child in a more consistent, ongoing way.


So this holiday season, while you’re giving gifts to the ones you love, consider giving back to a family, organization, neighbor, or local charity. It’s amazing how even seemingly small contributions can have a large impact.

Sincerely,
Ashley


I partnered with Tommy Hilfiger for this post but the thoughts and content are my own.