Many Ways to Give

November is a time of year when it feels like everyone has gratitude and generosity on their mind.

Despite the difficult history of Thanksgiving in the United States, the day usually marks the beginning of the “giving” season, like end-of-year campaigns for nonprofits and kickoffs for service projects rooted in various faith traditions.

Another calendar moment that arrives at the end of November is Giving Tuesday, a day created to celebrate generosity of spirit and community that serves as a foil to the consumerist impulses created by days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. To “celebrate” Giving Tuesday, people choose to share their generosity in many different ways⁠⁠—whether it’s helping a neighbor, advocating for an issue, signing a petition, sharing a skill, or donating to causes. The wonderful thing about the intentional cultivation of this spirit of abundance and generosity is that it reminds us that everyone has something to give and every act of generosity counts.

PBC is the recipient of countless non-monetary acts of generosity each year. For example:

Outgoing Board Chair Sarah Tantillo (LEFT) takes a break FROM RAKING during Woodcutters Day 2021 with incoming Board Chair Claudia Franco Kelly (right).

• Our Board of Trustees spend a huge amount of their time, along with their personal and professional expertise, to help guide the organization to be the best it can possibly be; to adapt to a changing philanthropic landscape, cultural landscape, and climate; and to help our staff and facilities provide a paragon experiential education experience for the young people we serve.

• Each year, volunteers fill the Blairstown Campus for Woodcutters Day to beautify and improve the property, spending a whole day working hard in the outdoors for the good of our participants.

• People who work in the trades, engineering, photography, or other subject specializations have offered their services to help PBC meet goals or complete special projects, such as the hydrogeneration system below the Bass Lake Dam.

• Students and chaperones who have attended PBC volunteer their time, likeness, and voice to amplify the impact PBC’s programming has had on their lives and the lives of others.

Examples like these serve to remind us that even in times of economic uncertainty, we each have a deep reserve of generosity, which we can deploy in myriad ways to make a difference. Your time, your kindness, your skills, and your voice are all things you can give, in addition to or in lieu of a financial donation.

Regardless of each person’s capacity to give, the most important part of this “season of giving” is choosing to share of yourself, in whatever way is right for you, with others. The most important thing any single person can do is choose to give – whatever that looks like!

Gratitude : A State of Being

(Editor’s Note: This post was written by PBC Senior Program Manager, Ron Franco.)

National Gratitude Month has been awarded to November, and you might be thinking… Ron, how can I begin to muster feelings of gratitude while 2020 has thrown us ALL so many crazy curveballs?

Well, with a humble and grateful heart, I thank you for blessing me with an opportunity to share my gratitude light, share a few insights and highlights, and take a stroll with you down a lane full of appreciation, thanks, and wonder.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines gratitude as “the state of being grateful: thankfulness; a feeling of appreciation or thanks.”

This is a beautiful, simple definition. Seriously though, “a state of being grateful!” Please take a moment to be present with the thought of… a state of being grateful.

Let me paint a picture for you about how I often approach my daily gratitude practice: It is early morning on a workday, the sun is beginning to peek out over the forest behind Bass Lake, and I am cresting the curve in front of PBC’s picturesque stone pillars. I pause a moment and offer a version of a gratitude mantra… “Thank you, Universe, for bringing me to PBC. I am humble and grateful to learn from this pristine land and forest, my fellow animated co-workers, and our wonderfully curious participants who we are blessed to serve. Please grant me patience, empathy, and the desire to listen. Please give me strength in body, kindness in heart, and let me relinquish my ego so I can serve the highest good of ALL beings I encounter today.”

Over the years, I have found a morning Gratitude Mantra helps guide my attitude, spirit, and work into a place filled with light, empathy, and curiosity. Implementing your own Daily Gratitude Mantra can help you stay focused and mission-driven by framing everything with a unique, positive, and appreciative perspective.

Gratitude is a layered theme with all groups I have been blessed to facilitate, and I am humbled by so many valuable and life-affirming lessons our young participants have taught me. A big lesson that will always remain deep within me is that “You Reap What You Sow.”

If you sow seeds of love, appreciation, and gratitude, then you likely will be rewarded with a day full of love, appreciation, and gratitude. Your attitude is like an emotional magnet – you can expect to attract precisely the same energy that you are putting out into the world.

RON fRANCO WORKING WITH STUDENTS FROM THE SEED SCHOOL IN 2018.

This lesson has helped me to connect with groups from all different walks of life while sharing amazing collective experiences, like conquering fear at the Dam Rappel or Super Zip, tasting the world’s freshest cherry tomato from our teaching garden together, finding peace under the quiet, bright night sky, and discovering wonder in the natural world while a waterfall babbles our shared worries away.  

I will always remember the first group I facilitated at PBC. It was an amazing group of 9th grade students from The SEED School of Washington, DC. I was granted the opportunity to spend three and a half adventurous days with them, and recall at the time feeling a bit overwhelmed by the duration of the program. However, I relied on my trusty bag of gratitude “tricks” throughout the program and was delighted on our last morning together as they “Shined Light” on me as their facilitator.

The morning was cool and a bit drizzly with a spring morning mist, and while gathered in a circle sheltered by the forest canopy, this amazing group of students began to share individually the impact that I had on them over the last few days… “Thank you for always being on our team… Thank you for always being supportive and helping us try to stay positive and say nice things to each other… Thank you for being your genuine self…Thank you for caring about us… Thank you for saying ‘Good Morning’ to me at breakfast, and asking how I was feeling each morning…Thank you for all the little things that truly showed us that you cared.”

I will never forget the lessons that those young students shared with me so many Aprils ago.

My friendly reminder to you is that gratitude is everywhere, even in the year 2020, because gratitude is a state of being. It is a presence within you – an ongoing, evolving “awareness of appreciation.” I encourage you to start with cherishing small, genuinely grateful moments, building towards a Daily Gratitude Mantra, and then transitioning to an enthusiastic state of being. Enjoy the ride as you witness in wonder the magic of gratitude!