I was invited to write a guest post on Carlyle Labuschagne’s Worlds Away Book Blog.  I shared one of my favorite stories, where my friend Hailey Sanford taught me something about giving back.  Grand Haven High School hosts a chapter of the Interact Club, a youth community service club sponsored by Rotary.  Each May, the GHHS Interact Club partners with the National Relief Network to take a cross-country trip to help with disaster relief.  We go wherever we are needed and often don’t know where that will be until the week before the trip.  In 2010, we were sent to Mississippi where a tornado had recently struck.  My post is about a special incident on that trip.

There’s a point in the story where I doubt Hailey’s dedication and I feel bad for that.  The post doesn’t hit on those feelings much, but it is a big part of the story for me, so I thought I might quickly mention it here.  I won’t give away the ending (you can read the full post via the link below), but suffice to say Hailey reminded me that you can’t always trust your eyes.  If you know in your heart that someone is a good person, then you should give them the benefit of the doubt.  They just might be about to share one of the most memorable and generous experiences of your life.

That’s what Hailey did for me.  I can’t thank her enough for it.

You can read the post at the bottom of this page.
The local news paper, the Choctaw Plaindealer, also wrote an article about our efforts.
Information about National Relief Network can be found on their website.
More about Rotary’s Interact Clubs can be found here.

If you’d like to read a story about other people trying to do the right thing, I invite you to try my novel Good Deeds.

Tags: disaster relief, giving back, Good Deeds, inspiration, Interact, NRN, Rotary, tornado