Making a difference

Do you have something to share? Is there a way you can share a talent, skill, something you enjoy, with others? I am always amazed at how some small act, some act of faith in humankind, can make a lasting difference in a person's life.

Today, Mike Leonard, author of The Ride of our Lives, spoke to a group at the Winnetka (Illinois) Womans Club. He shared several stories of people he had met who had done favors or who provided breaks that had lasting effects on his own life.

What can you do? Our local Rotary club is beginning a literacy project where we are providing text-to-speech (scanning) software to our local library so that the Internet and any book or magazine can be accessible to those with vision (including age-related visual difficulties) or other print disabilities such as learning disabilities. In my practice, I have donated funds as well as a new scanner to this project. Local volunteers, including Rotarians, parents, and students, will scan books (it is almost as easy as pressing a button on a copy machine) and provide accessible CDs to circulate with the actual library books. After the project is developed, we are going to "Pay it Forward" to three other Rotary clubs to bring accessibility software/hardware to their local public libraries. Each of those clubs will pay it forward to three others, and so on. Local libraries can then become the hub of learning for everyone of all levels of ability, creating more educated citizens who can then actively participate in giving back in their own ways.

Just remember, a single kind act creates a ripple effect, spreading ever widening circles of change in our world.