Family to Family Experience

Last weekend I had the privilege to participate in a Family to Family exchange sponsored by a local organization. My wife has volunteered us to be deliverers as she had heard it was a great experience. This organization has been doing this for over 20 years which is amazing when you considered the structure and detail involved. The organization brings the community together to donate gifts and food, wrap them, and distribute them according to the needs of specific immigrant families that work the local farms and live in communities in need. The process has been in the works for weeks as the coordination of deliveries, preparation and logistics is enormous considering a total of 650 families will be provided with these packages.

Being part of the delivery team was also an interesting process. We need to attend a preparation meeting in order to understand our roles the day of the deliveries. The organization has safety as a priority and sends teams of 2 or 3 families in at least two cars for every route in order to ensure that each look out for each other. The routes include at least eight families that are mostly in the same area to at least make the logistics a little better. We also tend to need more that one car because each family gets a full dinner package of food as well as gifts for each child in the family. In our case, we delivered to eight families which requires us to take three cars on the route given the limited space of the cars in our group.

It was great to meet similar families participating in the event as it really brings out the best in humanity. With the suggestions of prior participants and the families we were sharing with, we decided to take our daughter along with us. I never had the opportunity to do anything similar as a child as I was probably more likely to be on the receiving side than on the given side when I was younger given social considerations. I like for my daughter to see the good in people rather than the majority of the things we are exposed to on a daily basis in newspapers, media, and on the internet. I also wanted to her to see how others sacrifice so much more to have little while we have been blessed in having what we have. Many of these families came to the country in search of better lives for their younger ones which has been my approach in life so I related very much so with many of the parents we met.

As we distributed the packages, we saw so many examples of how difficult it is to prosper in a strange country. Language was a barrier in many cases as my wife tried to coordinate deliveries but some misunderstood and were not immediately present. Fortunately, we were able to postpone deliveries and adjust accordingly in all cases but one. We also experienced farmworkers getting off their bus from work to receive us and their families. We saw incapacities that once again reminded us of how lucky we are at this point in time of life. This brought me to an interesting conversation with my daughter as she could not understand how strangers could receive food from strangers and be happy. She has never felt hunger and needing something without having the ability to just ask and receive it. I told her that many had to decide on priorities with what they had to have a roof over their head and that these gifts allowed them to do much more for their families for the Holidays.

My daughter arrived at the community playing on her tablet and quickly realized the fact that the best toy most of these families had were the coloring books we had brought along to include in our packages. Without realizing it, I think it impacted her as she immediately put down the tablet as we drove around for the deliveries. She started to help us take things out of the cars and provide to the families. She also started to wish them happy holidays and responding to the thanks we received. I am so happy we decided to bring her along as I think it will bring her to think more about what we have. In fact, on our drive back home I told her to remember that things change without warning and that we need to appreciate the things we have today because we never know what the future holds many times. We cannot become insensitive to the needs of others as we can always be next on the list. We must always learn to remain humble in life as the world turns and could impact us in any time without notice.

While I was at first not enthusiastic about taking this much time from a weekend to do this, I am proud of my family for choosing to do this with love and respect to our community and society. I would now look forward for this to become a family tradition every year as it has been a great experience to share with not only my family but with other families in the community. During this time of giving, we should focus more on what we can give instead of what we receive; particularly for those of us who have that ability. These are the experiences and times that remind us of what the strength of community can bring to the world when we are not selfish.

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