The Response to Those in Need

Giving Matters by Lawson Knight

As you are reading this column, I have a daughter turning three. The events that transpired around her birth remind me that I cannot do everything by myself—There is no “pull-myself-up-by-the-bootstraps” type of plan I can implement. Quite humbly and simply I need help. Consider the natural disasters of 2006, and throw in the Tsunami of December, 2005, and you see that for the entire human condition, we sometimes cannot do things by ourselves without help.

Molly was born on January 29, 2003. By her pediatrics visit on the following day, she was given a preliminary diagnosis of Down’s syndrome. By that evening, a rare, but not uncommon malady in Down’s babies was discovered that necessitated her flight to Spokane. In the drop of a hat my wife and I chased her in our car and would spend the next several days, stretching into weeks, at her crib side.

The important part of this story is when others saw our need, they helped. Our older daughter was taken in by my in-laws. My employer gave me the release time to be with my wife and family. My co-worker made sure the office ticked. We saw the miraculous care offered by a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit’s staff of nurses and doctors. We were given a room at the Ronald McDonald House. Friends and family provided calls, notes and visits and wanted to know how to help.

I shudder to think of what might have been had we not been surrounded by this love and care during our time of need. It makes me think of the victims of tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes.

Imagine a natural event occurs. If your shelter survives, you have no power, water, sewer or sanitation. Your local grocery store is damaged and there is no access to replenishing its inventory. Your local hospital is destroyed so you have little or no access to healthcare. The school is damaged so your child cannot attend classes. As we saw on TV, heard on the radio, read and in our newspapers and on the Internet, this is what happened to thousands and thousands of people on the Gulf Coast, in Southeast Asia and in Pakistan.

The important part of this story is when others saw this need, they helped. Looking just at Hurricane Katrina, within one month of its end, Americans gave nearly $2 billion in relief. Community members found a sister city to aid, Pascagoula, Mississippi, formed Washington KARES and raised money. The local Christian Aid Center shipped a truckload of furniture that is being used in domestic violence shelters in the Greater New Orleans area. Local school children organized fundraisers. Local Red Cross officers have been deployed to help. Victims are being sheltered and supported in our region and community. Whitman opened its doors to college students from affected colleges and universities.

While the events that generated the need for support are tragic, there is great hope when people respond to those in need. I know this personally. The challenge for you and to be sensitive to the needs of those around us and respond.


Lawson Knight is the Executive Director of the Blue Mountain Community Foundation, located in the Baker Building, 8 South 2nd Ave., Suite 618, Walla Walla, WA 99362.
He may be contacted at 529-4371 or by e-mail.