Y Talk: This Giving Tuesday, Give of Yourselves by Cate Mellen

Five years ago, the 92nd Street Y in New York City came up with a great idea to harness the economic excesses of the season for the greater good—Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday always falls on the Tuesday immediately following Thanksgiving. We’re all familiar with Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. In recent years, we’ve also been introduced to Small Business Saturday, which I was glad to see was wildly successful in downtown Carlisle last weekend, and Cyber Monday, the day in which you can find the lowest price and the best deals at online retailers.

On Giving Tuesday, however, Americans are encouraged to turn their attention away from consumerism and towards philanthropy, and to donate to non-profit organizations in their community or beyond.

So for the past few years, I have taken the opportunity on this day to ask my friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, community leaders and fellow Y members to join us in celebrating Giving Tuesday by making a gift to the Carlisle Family YMCA’s year-end Tree of Lights campaign. You can purchase a light on our tree in honor or memory of a loved one knowing that with your financial gift you will be supporting less fortunate members of our community.

And you have heeded the call, not just in this holiday season, but throughout the year. We’re nearly three-quarters of the way to our campaign goal of $20,000 this holiday season with over a month to go, and I have faith that you will help us to achieve that goal. You helped us shatter last year’s Tree of Lights campaign goal, and also to break records with our Annual Campaign this past spring. I am continuously awed and humbled by the generosity of my community. Thanks to all of you who have opened your wallets this past year to support the Y. You have helped to put smiles on the faces of hundreds of local children and to give them experiences they will always remember.

This Giving Tuesday, then, I’m going to ask each and every one of you to dig a little bit deeper, and to give a little bit more. While not all of us have the capacity to give generous monetary gifts to those in need in our community, we *all* have the capacity to give things which are perhaps more valuable than money—our time and our attention, our kindness and our empathy.

There are so many ways to give back, which can help to improve the lives of those less fortunate and to make them feel a sense of belonging. You can be a role model for children by volunteering to coach youth sports at the Y or elsewhere, or by becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister. You can provide companionship for isolated seniors by volunteering for Meals on Wheels, or the Cumberland County Library System’s STAR program for homebound adults. You can help those down-on-their-luck to get back on their feet by volunteering your time at Carlisle Cares or the Salvation Army. I’d like to challenge each of my readers to commit a few hours each week as a volunteer to the organization of your choice in the year ahead. Your time and attention can make a world of difference to those in need.

We can also give of ourselves in a much more fundamental way this holiday season. The recent presidential election has left our country more starkly divided than at any point in recent history. There has been an increasing distrust of those not like ourselves, leading to an increased polarization and a growing sense of unrest. This holiday season, we can resist this growing divide by being kind and welcoming to all of our neighbors and colleagues, regardless of their faith, their skin color or their political ideology. Rather than lament the status quo that so divides us, we can each make the personal decision not to let it continue, and make a concerted effort to understand each other, to make those most marginalized feel that they are welcome in our community.

This Giving Tuesday, I hope we can all open not just our wallets, but also our hearts and our minds, so that we can give back to the community that has given so much to all of us.

-by Cate Mellen, Board Liaison and Development Director