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Pay
it Forward (for Pennies)
by Kimberly
Danger
Over 25 years
ago, Catherine Ryan Hyde was driving her old
Datsun through a rough area of Los Angeles at
night. When her car died and began to fill with
smoke at a freeway off ramp, that wasn’t the
worst of her problems. Ms. Hyde saw two men
running towards her, one carrying a blanket. In
her mind, she knew she was dead. Instead, the
men pushed past her and proceeded to smother the
engine fire with the blanket. The car could
have exploded at any moment, killing all of
them. They put their lives at risk to help a
stranger. After the fire department arrived and
the dust had settled, she looked up to thank the
men. They were gone, and she realized she could
never repay or thank them for what they had
done. Instead she decided to pay it forward.
That event inspired Catherine Ryan Hyde to write
the book of the same name.
A movie based on
Ms. Hyde’s book was released in 2000, which
garnered even more attention for the Pay it
Forward movement. In September of that year,
the Pay it Forward Foundation was created to
educate and inspire students to realize that
they can change the world, and provide them with
opportunities to do so.
http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/
No matter how
much money is in your bank account, no matter
how hard it might be for you to make ends meet
-- you can get involved. Sometimes the smallest
thing can have a huge impact, and make a big
difference in someone’s day. Giving creates an
atmosphere of abundance in your own life. When
you give, your energies are focused on doing
something with the gifts you do have, not
what you’re lacking.
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