Thanksgiving. Three days away. To many people, it’s a religious holiday, devoted to giving thanks to their God for all their blessings. For some, Thanksgiving is just the beginning of a long, depressing and poor holiday season.

There are plenty of ways in which the more fortunate can share their blessings with the needy. There are a number of food drives operating at NIU—including one run by the John Lennon Society, another by Circle K and Phi Kappa Theta and a third in the college of law.

Some people want to help, but desire a more personal experience than just writing out a check or handing over a few cans of soup to an anonymous clerk. For them, the DeKalb K-Mart is having a program to provide gifts to needy children at Christmas.

Anyone who wants to sponsor one of the children picks a name and is provided with the child’s clothing sizes, age and sex. There is no minimum expenditure required and gifts need not be purchased at any specific store. Gifts of clothing are preferred. If any children on the list are not chosen by sponsors, K-Mart will provide the gifts for them.

If corporate America can take up the cause of providing a little cheer for needy children at Christmas, the average private individual should have no problem. Granted, corporate America can generally afford to be generous, but so can most individuals—just not on the same scale.

The thing to remember is it is not necessary to spend a lot of money in order to help these children. No one is expected to go out and purchase extravagant gifts. These kids don’t need extravagant gifts—they need socks, mittens, hats and warm sweaters.

Members of the “me generation” have a tendency to measure favors by how much it costs them to do the favor, or how hard it is to accomplish. The true measure of a favor is how much it means to the person it is done for.

Purchasing a pair of mittens for a five-year-old boy requires minimal time, money and effort from the person who sponsors the needy child. But the little boy will have something to open on Christmas morning, making his day a little brighter. And he will have warm hands the next time he walks to school.

Most importantly, he’ll grow up knowing there are people in the world who don’t always think of themselves first. He’ll probably grow up to be that same kind of person. And maybe someday he’ll run a corporate program to provide gifts to needy children at Christmas.