Cheers...to randomly spreading a little joy
Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) campers spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon passing out roses throughout the community, the random acts of kindness portion of their weeklong leadership training experience. While “random” may be a misnomer in this case since the activity was planned out ahead of time, it certainly was a kind gesture.
Dozens of people benefitted from this kindness when they were pleasantly surprised by high schoolers wearing blue RYLA shirts who approached them with colorful roses. No doubt some were leery at first – human nature tells us that giving something for absolutely no reason other than to put a smile on a face is the exception rather than the norm. But here they were, bubbly young men and women, bouncing around town with flowers in hand, ready to give to the next person they saw.
The smiles they received were probably reward enough, but are these young people aware of the profound effect they had on some of the recipients, like the family that had just finished planning a funeral when they came swooping into the funeral home and offered each member a beautiful rose? Instead of leaving with somber faces, the family couldn't help but smile as they went out the door. That simple little flower, and everything it represented, provided powerful feelings of hope and that things will be alright, something they hadn't felt earlier.
So to the RYLArians and other young people who with a heart for giving, keep up the good work. What you do matters and you never know how your simple random act of kindness can make a big difference on someone's life.
Jeers...to making people pay for their own money
There’s a commercial on TV these days featuring a gas station and convenience store in the region that’s promoting the “no-fee” ATM it now features in its store. The pitch man, at the end of the commercial says the reason behind the no-fee ATM is that “we don’t feel you should have to pay to get your own money.”
That provides a nice segue to this jeer, which is directed at the state delaying for the second year in a row almost a third of the state education funding formula allocations due to school districts across Minnesota. Both last year and this year, the delays are part of budget-balancing packages that are high on delays and gimmicks and low on real change that will get Minnesota back on the right track over the long term.
Whose money is it? The state’s? The school districts’? The taxpayers’? The answer, for Minnesotans, is that it’s all of ours, and by delaying a percentage of the allocations to school districts, the state is forcing many of them, Crookston included, to purchase certificates that give them enough cash to pay the bills. It costs money to access the cash, and last year and this year, the Crookston district will pay around $60,000 in interest costs. For a district trying to pinch pennies, that’s some serious coin.
Oh, sure, if the district had a bigger fund balance it wouldn’t have to borrow so much to bridge the gap brought on by the delay, right? True, but if the district had a fund balance that big, local taxpayers would be up in arms, wondering why the school board is hoarding all of that money instead of investing it in our kids’ education. The state delays an even higher percentage of funding from districts with substantial fund balances anyway, so it’s kind of a lose-lose situation all around.
