There is Hope
So many times I read or watch the news and I feel so discouraged at how much evil is in the world. So many stories of people mistreating each other. People hurting, abusing, taking advantage, killing... I find so many times that I just wish the Second Coming would be sooner than later. I just don't want to hear these stories anymore. I could just choose to not watch the news, but that isn't going to change that they are still happening - which is far worse than me hearing about it.
Then you get a story like the one I'll relay to you. It started out like the others, a teenage girl stabbed to death. It was last week, we first learned about it when Ryan came home from work and asked me why a major road in our area was completely blocked off? We watched the news and found out that a 17 year old girl was stabbed while working at McDonalds. The man who stabbed her had no relation to her at all. He was schizophrenic and just randomly selected this girl to kill. There was no warning, no major scene, nothing. He just walked in and when she asked how she could help him, he stabbed her. Then he left. When he saw the police cars approaching, he laid on the ground and waited for them to cuff him. He made bizarre statements like, (paraphrasing) "I should have stayed home with my stuffed animals." He admitted that he did something very bad.
Sad. Tragic even. This was a girl who was a Senior in high school. (A high school where at least one of our YW attends.) She would have graduated next month. She worked at McDonalds to help with the family finances.
Earlier this week I heard about the fundraiser. I wanted to participate but then I completely forgot until after Acadia was in bed last night. So I quickly text paged Ryan, who was on his way home, to tell him what to do.
The McDonalds where she was killed was raising money for the family. All day yesterday for EVERY $1 purchased, that store would donate $2.25 to the family! Did you read that? They were donating the entire purchase PLUS matching it 125%! Have you heard of such a generous offer? I don't know that I have. I've heard of "all proceeds" or "entire purchase" or "we'll match 100%"... But I can't recall ever hearing a company donate so much! The goal was to raise $15,000 for the family.
Ryan came home after I paged him, empty handed. He had gone to the McDonalds. There were so many people that there were police directing traffic. There was no parking. Ryan parked across the street at a KMart. Then he joined the hundreds of people outside, waiting to get in to place an order. After a few minutes, the manager came out and said that they were all out of food, they had nothing left to sell. But the good news was that they had not raised $15,000, they had raised OVER $75,000 for this family.
What began as a truly sad story about one person making an awful choice, taking the life of a young person, affecting so many family members and other loved ones... now takes a turn. It isn't about the one man's actions. It is now a story of an entire community - thousands of people wanting to help. They had twice as many orders at that store than they normally would have - and each order was twice as large as usual. Just like I had sent Ryan to buy us food, hundreds of others did too - not because they wanted to eat it as much as they wanted to participate in helping.
And it's a story about a business that is often made fun of and attacked for the unhealthy fast food it serves and the inexperienced, young "punks" that work the counters. A business that chose to help a community feel united, help a family to have one less thing to worry about in such a difficult time, help people like me to feel like there is still hope.
So, even though I didn't get to make a purchase yesterday, and even though the fundraiser is over, I think I will get something from that McDonald's today. Not because I'm craving any french fries or because I heard the special flavor shake is strawberry banana, but because I want to support the business that would choose to make such a difference and totally change how a community was feeling.
And if you want to support a business like that, I encourage you to make a little purchase today too. (They do serve some things that are not completely unhealthy... salads, bran muffins, parfaits, etc.)