‘It feels GREAT to give . . .’
– Zack Francom.

Imagine making a difference. REALLY making a difference. Imagine changing someone’s life. For the better. Forever . . .

Imagine the impoverished. The desperate. Those struggling just to survive. Imagine someone denied life’s basics.

Imagine a mother. She is disabled. She is crawling through the dirt, her infant child clinging to her back. Mile after mile after mile, dragging them both along. Imagine making a difference, changing their lives for the better.

It sounds like a tall order, but such a thing isn’t difficult to achieve. Just ask Zack Francom . . .

Zack, from Provo in Utah, is just 11. Yet his is an example for us all to follow, for he is out there doing it. Making a difference. Changing lives. For the better. Forever.

During his last four Spring Breaks (he started this as a six-year-old), Zack has set up a stall outside his home that he calls Zack’s Shack. The products (and the prices) are modest: 50 cents for lemonade, two cookies for a dollar. Sometimes, however, the smallest things can make the greatest impact.

Zack’s Shack has, since 2010, raised enough to acquire 332 wheelchairs, which have been sent to people in need in developing countries. Places like Guam and Guatemala, where 75% of the population are considered impoverished and where a wheelchair costs more than the average annual salary . . .

Places where the disabled cannot get around, unless they’re prepared to lie down in the dirt and crawl.

“There’s one lady, in Guatemala, who crawled for 10 miles with her baby on her back to pick up her wheelchair,” said Zack’s mom, Nancy, whose cookies (like the cause) always prove popular. “Imagine the dramatic change it has made to her life”.

Imagine indeed . . .

“I thought ‘What if I couldn’t walk or run or ride my bike . . .’,” said Zack, whose benevolence knows no bounds. “That would be hard. I know people in wheelchairs and I think it’s sad when they don’t have them. They can’t move and they’re not respected. I thought ‘I can help’.”

Help Zack has, although the benefits are not limited to those on the receiving end . . .

“Zack is the perfect example of how philanthropy changes the giver as well as the receiver,” said Tanise Chung-Hoon, from LDS Philanthropies, the charitable group helping Zack to reach those most in need of his help. It’s an interesting (and important) point.

Giving does change people. It improves people too and not just those responsible for the kind act in question. Those looking on, those inspired, those following suit and doing their own good deeds as a result, philanthropy’s reach knows no limits.

Here at OM®, we’d like to applaud Zack and everyone out there making a difference. REALLY making a difference. Changing lives. For the better. Forever . . .

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2o_8ZUb690?rel=0]

We are all connected

Happy July 4th Everybody!