Hello,
My name is Hope. Please let me tell you a little about myself, what I do, and how I got my name.
I'm here to thank all those who have helped, all those who do help, and ask you to help in our fight against breast cancer. Even though I'm here to increase awareness about "Breast Cancer", please understand that all cancer research benefits all other fields of cancer research, and it's the efforts of individuals like you that actually save lives! My friends all over Concord and the surrounding communities have helped in the fight and can actually be credited with saving lives! I'm here to thank those of you who have done so much, and to ask many of you who have never thought about it to join in. There are many ways to help. Sometimes the best help doesn't come in the form of money, but comes in the form of providing a ride for a total stranger to get back and forth to a treatment, or help make or donate signs for an event, to lend us flowers or decorations for an event, cook, set up, take down, or any number of things to help out at a fund-raising or awareness event. (Sometimes, even I need a ride!)
The word "Charity" is sometimes misunderstood. It really means an unselfish love. The kind of love where one person places the welfare of another above themself. You've heard it said that there is "Faith, Hope, and Charity, but the greatest of these is Charity". Let me tell you what that means to me, and why, if Charity is the greatest, my name is "Hope". It's really very simple actually. Some good friends of mine taught me this:
Faith ends in sight, Hope ends in fruition, but Charity is Eternal.
Charity, being the unselfish gift to another, touches a life in a positive way. That life then, because it has been touched, touches others in a more positive way. In that way, even after the giver of the gift has long been gone, their "Charity", or unselfish love, continue to benefit all. "Charity", therefore, is Eternal.
Faith is the belief in things yet unseen. We "Choose" to believe in something even though we can't prove it, or see it. Once we see it, our notion of it becomes knowledge, there is no more need for "Faith".
Hope is the desire for things not yet realized (or attained). Once we have what we have hoped for, our "Hope" goes away. We have no more need to want for it. We can then simply enjoy the fruit of our hopes and our work.
Well, it's my hope that you'll join us in our fight. Who knows? Maybe it will be you who puts us over the top and we'll find a way to put a stop to this disease. Maybe you will be the one that makes the difference for someone between living, and dying . If you decide to help, even in the smallest of ways, you could be the one that makes the difference so that cancer becomes a thing of the past. If you help, maybe someday nobody will have to live in fear of that disease. If you help, maybe someday, and hopefully, someday soon, the difference you make will allow me to change my name from "Hope", to "Joy"....
Until then, thank you, all of you, for your charity.