Making a Difference

As I mentioned in my "Yes You Can" article, I am reading an interesting book. It is "Heroes for My Son" by Brad Meltzer (Copyright 2010 by Forty-four Steps, Inc. - All Rights Reserved. Sharing is permitted). I receive a chapter every day from DailyLit. I am about two-thirds the way through the book. There have been so many inspirational stories that just tug at your heart and every one of them delivers a great message. I am just amazed at some of the stories. Even more interesting is the background story for each selected hero. I might know the name and the accomplishment, but most of the time I am not aware of what prompted the unselfish or great accomplishment.

How often do you find yourself saying something like, "I wish I could do something about that?" We see animals covered in oil in the Gulf or children starving in Haiti. You know the drill. The sight just makes you want to do something to help. Then you ask yourself, but what? I know I have been there many times and, unfortunately, after a few days I forget about it, or at best, give a donation.

What made the author, Brad Meltzer, choose these particular people as heroes, however, is that they all did something about it (not just wish or write a check). They made a difference.

Today's Hero was Dan West. Have you ever heard about him before? Not me, but after reading his abbreviated short story, I wanted to know more. Mr. West is the founder of Heifer International. Yes, I remember the name, but nothing more.

The story starts with a brief summary, "After seeing the devastation brought about by the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, Indiana farmer Dan West began sending livestock across the world to the poor and malnourished. His project continued, growing from his small idea to become Heifer International.]

As a relief worker in the Spanish Civil War, Dan had to choose who would go hungry each day because there was not enough powdered milk to feed everyone. "Every day he saw the same starving children." Dan West looked at these starving children and compared them to his daughters back home. They were well fed and healthy because their Indiana farm was fairly self-sufficient.

The adage, "Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today, but teach the man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime," applies well to this story. That is what Dan did; he gave the people cows, not just a cup of milk. "He started by sending seventeen cows to malnourished children in Puerto Rico. After World War II, more cows were sent to Europe and Japan ..."

As you know, everything has a catch and so did Dan's program. He did not just give the cows away. He made every family that received his cows promise that "when each animal gave birth, the newborn animal had to go to another family." He felt in this way the gift would keep on giving and help many more people that needed food.

Dan West saw there was a need and did something about it. It all started with seventeen cows, but "today Heifer International has fed over 9.2 million people in 128 countries."

At the end of every chapter, there is always one quote from the hero being profiled. "In all my travels around the world, the important decisions were made where people sat in a circle, facing each other as equals," Dan West.

What a great story!

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Note: Unfortunately, in recent years there have been several scams going around using Heifer International's name. It just goes to show that for every good deed, there is usually someone else standing just around the corner trying to take advantage of our generosity.