Jon Jansky, Senior

I went to a seminar once where Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker, was speaking about starting new businesses and one of his stories really resonated with me. Tony’s family did not have much as he was growing up and they were usually struggling to make ends meet. Then one Thanksgiving he received a knock at the door and when he answered it he found himself face to face with a stranger who handed him a complete Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and all. He was very surprised and pleased to have received this gift as the chance for having any kind of Thanksgiving dinner was looking slim for that particular year.

This simple gesture made a real impact on young Tony, as for years later when he was in college he decided he would do the same thing for someone else in need. The following year he expanded from feeding one family to feeding three and so on and so forth. Eventually, this tiny seed which was planted in Tony so many years back grew into a fully fledged charitable organization that does exactly what the Newman Center was setting up to do.

I always liked that story and thought, “what is stopping me from doing the same thing?” That was about five or six years ago that I went to that seminar. So when I heard The Newman Center was doing exactly what I always told myself I wanted to do, how could I resist? So this past Thanksgiving I signed up and not only raised enough funds for one family, but I called all my friends and we all were able to raise more than enough to feed three families!

Then the day came to present the dinners which was an interesting experience. Not only did we distribute the food but we actually conversed and just spent time with the Families. My friends and I were able step outside our comfort zones and help someone. We’ll never forget it.