About a month ago I received an email that stopped me in my tracks. The email was from 11-year-old Kieran Caniglia.
Dear Meghann and Kaitlin,
I received money from my parents this year for my 11th birthday. I was looking through your website when I saw your annual fund. I saw that if I donated $250 I could become a mentor. I thought that this was AWESOME!!! I decided I could use my birthday money plus some from my savings account to equal $250.
I think that many of the kids you are teaching are a lot like me. They have many of the same wishes and goals in life as I do. It is all of the things that we don’t have in common that makes me want to donate to TFFT. I think it is really cool that you that you make sure that the TFFT students can have the same opportunities as I do.
I am going to mail the $250 tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Kieran Caniglia
Um… Wow.
Kieran gets it. His profound simplicity struck me:
It is all of the things that we don’t have in common that makes me want to donate to TFFT.
Kieran noticed the similarities he shares with our scholars when it comes to wishes, goals, hopes, and dreams. He then identified that the main difference is opportunity to pursue those wishes, goals, hopes, and dreams:
I think it is really cool that you that you make sure that the TFFT students can have the same opportunities as I do.
Well, Kieran, we think it’s really cool that you’re a 5th grader who cares enough about the TFFT scholars that you decided to donate your birthday money and part of your savings to support your peers in Tanzania!!
Again, WOW.
After re-reading the email a few times with my jaw on the floor, I emailed Kieran back expressing TFFT’s gratitude and our general amazement over this gift. After an email exchange (and a rambling-can’t-find-the-words-but-WOW call to Keiran’s mom), Keiran and I scheduled an ice cream meeting so that I could help him understand the impact of his gift.
It was a meeting like no other.
Kieran had thoughtful questions; he expressed his desire to travel to Tanzania to meet the TFFT scholars; his face lit up when he discovered that his name would be listed in our 2014 Annual Report, and he started scheming how he could climb up the ladder from Mentor to Partner over the years!
Thank you, Kieran, for your enormous heart. I can’t wait for you to meet your friends in Tanzania one day.
Will you join Kieran in the Impact Circle this year? We need you so that we can continue to provide our scholars with opportunities like the ones Kieran has here in Charlotte!