For Wilshire Baptist Church
It was a life lesson taught and learned on our front porch: responsibility and all that.
A neighborhood girl came by one afternoon seeking donations for her middle school band. She explained that the money collected would be used to purchase and maintain their band instruments, and donors would be entered in a drawing. She had a collection sign-up log so I knew it was legitimate and was glad to contribute a small amount. As we talked, I learned that she plays the clarinet. I told her that LeAnn and I still play our band instruments in the church wind ensemble. She looked at me with quizzical surprise and then thanked me and went on her way. End of story, or so I thought.
A week later, the doorbell rang and it was the girl again but this time her father was with her. She explained, in a soft, timid voice, that when she turned in her donations, she was $10 short of what was written on her collection log. She said the band director told her the school couldn’t accept an incomplete collection and she’d have to return all the money to all her donors.
“This is a hard lesson she’s learning about responsibility,” the father said. He was looking at us, but we know he was speaking mostly to her.
We asked her if she had already gone back to the other donors to return their donations, and she said we were her first stop. LeAnn and I looked at each other; we knew what we should do. We told her we’d be pleased to help her make her collection whole with an extra donation of $10.
At that point, her father stepped off the porch, turned his back to us, and said, “OK, I can’t be part of this conversation,” and to his daughter, “you’ll have to work this out yourself.” Again, responsibility.
So we repeated our offer and she asked, “Are you sure?” We said “yes” and gave her $10. She thanked us, and we repeated our message that we too were “band kids” in school, we still play today, and music is a gift that can last a lifetime if she sticks with it. Before she and her father left, we asked when her next concert will be because we want to go. She came back a few days later with the details about that. That made LeAnn smile, because it will be on the high school stage where she first played.
Our young neighbor learned a hard lesson about responsibility and all that, but we also got a refresher course on supporting a young girl who is the future of our community and our world. We don’t have children or grandchildren so we like to pitch in and encourage when we can. Like music, it’s a gift that can last a lifetime.