America’s charity makes a lasting impression
November 28
Several years ago I had the privilege of supervising the work of a young journalist from the Soviet Union during her six-month internship in the newsrooms of The Denver Post and Channel 4 TV. At the end of her tour of duty, I assigned her to write an article about what had most surprised her about the United States.
She was the daughter of a full-fledged communist, a career officer in the Soviet army, and she had been raised in a climate of anti-American propaganda. When she first arrived in this country and was taken to a supermarket on the East Coast, she truly believed that the huge grocery was merely a prop, filled with produce and merchandise that wasn’t really available to the average American. She thought the facility was nothing less than a store created to brainwash foreigners into thinking this was how life was in the United States.
She simply could not comprehend the idea of fresh fruit being available year-round at affordable prices, and the huge selection of merchandise was mind-boggling to her.
She was similarlydumbfounded on her first visit to an ice-cream store, where her mind reeled at the thought of having 52 flavors to choose from. She finally had to have her host make the decision for her.
When her internship in Denver ended, she had become convinced that the United States wasn’t the fraud she had been raised to believe, and she was singing the praises of democracy. A couple of years later, I heard that she had married an American man and they were expecting a child to be born in their home in the United States.
But just as she had learned from her American tutors, she taught us a few lessons too.
On that last assignment, she wrote about the many things that had surprised her while living here, but her selection of the single biggest surprise even surprised me.
She wrote that she was overwhelmed at the concept of charity in America. She had been raised to think that all Americans were greedy, selfish, materialistic, self-centered capitalists, and that they didn’t share their wealth. As she became familiar with life in Colorado, that perception gradually changed.
As she learned about large organizations like the United Way, the Red Cross and Goodwill, she also was exposed to small charitable groups that had narrow interests – church organizations helping homeless people, groups that were dedicated to raising money to combat a disease, Rotarians trying to eradicate polio form the planet, citizens helping homeless pets. She discovered that wealthy families built public museums, and libraries and concert halls.
The idea of American philanthropy blew her mind.
I honestly don’t recall whether she was here over the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season, but I seem to remember her time here as being over the summer. I don’t think America was wearing the annual holiday mood of charity on her sleeve at the time.
It didn’t escape Anya Yermalenko’s attention though. She wrote eloquently about how impressed she was that Americans were willing to spend their own wealth voluntarily to help the disadvantaged.
I was surprised, too, that this was the aspect of American life that so dramatically had influenced her image of our country – in all the time we had spent together, she had never mentioned our spirit of philanthropy, and I wasn’t even aware that it had caught her attention.
But, boy had it! During her stay in Denver, she lived with a woman who was deeply involved in charitable work. It probably was that exposure, more than anything, that changed her perceptions.
This time of year Americans especially open their hearts to the less fortunate. You can’t pick up a newspaper, watch a newscast or listen to a radio station without hearing a plea for help from charities. And it seems that the readers and viewers and listeners have no limit to how much they can contribute to a good cause. You seldom hear of a fund-raising event that doesn’t reach its goal.
And so when you consider your holiday donations this season, don’t be reluctant to open your hearts and your wallets.
Volunteerism and charity is one of those wonderful qualities that make America a uniquely great country – a value that, left alone to thrive, has proved to reflect the very best in human nature.
