Doing good

One of the highlights for me each year is covering an international conference that is dedicated to the betterment of people. I won’t name the organization, but they know who they are.

Two things struck me. They have a subprogram for people under 35. Each year I can meet young adults who are dedicated to helping others. There are times I almost want to cry when I see how they give back not just to their organizations but their communities.

The other was a visit to a local Irish organization, which is a tradition at this conference. Visit local groups that share the same ideas. However, this group met us with a band of bagpipers and drummers dressed in kilts. In the band were a father, son and grandfather.

The staff of the group was beyond welcoming. A quick review of their work made it apparent that their community would not have been as well developed had they not existed for the last thirty years.

In a time where death and destruction is all around us, even the most cynical could not help but be moved by those that build not tear down, those that care for others as much as themselves and those that think in more terms than their own needs.

The next day at the closing ceremony one of the under-35s spoke to the 1850 delegates that had seen a part Irish president, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, a Finance Minister, a Regulator, a TV economist/presenter and a human rights worker. But it was the young woman that brought out the handkerchiefs in the audience when she talked about the evening before at the same event I had attended as a life-changing experience. Her emotion at discovering how others could care for their neighbors cannot be recaptured here.

Her words gave me renewed hope that people can rededicate themselves to helping others.

When I admitted to a friend from other conferences also listening how I had cried, she admitted she had too.