They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. I believe that’s true.

Why, just yesterday, I came home from work, stopped at the post office, and had the devil of time pulling this thick package out of my tiny mailbox. After I finally yanked it free, I immediately knew what was in it. And they were definitely worth a thousand words.

Stuffed inside were more than a dozen handmade thank you notes from a local 6th grade classroom. They came to me because I had contributed money toward a monthly subscription to Scholastic’s Scope Magazine for that classroom. Now, I donated for two reasons:

• In this environment, we desperately need to develop critical thinking skills in upcoming generations, and
• It was in my hometown.

Now, I discovered DonorsChoose.org, a 501(c)3 charity that partners with educators all over the country, in 2017 when my nephew’s wife Molly, a 5th grade teacher in West Virginia, posted her project to raise funds to buy enough copies of R.J. Palacio’s book (now movie) Wonder for her students. Her project? To help the kids learn about bullying, friendship, and trust with the goal of creating empathy and compassion.

I donated to that one, too.

When I got home, yesterday, I poured the cards out on the table and read each and every one. They made my day, but especially this one, which caught my eye and my breath:

“I love Scope magazines because they have current
events in it. It tells me things I did not know.”

Oh, yes. That’s it. That’s why I give. Because it matters. Because I can help students become better, more respectful and empathetic people. Because I can help them learn “things they did not know.” And that’s absolutely priceless, worth far more than a thousand words, far more than a picture.