Helping others, no matter how small the gesture, can have a positive ripple effect far greater than the deed itself.
When Marty gave my sister his prized Ichiro bat, he expected nothing in return. After all, the sheer joy of giving was reward enough for him, which made this surprise even sweeter.
I was blown away by his generosity, and I wasn’t alone. The Seattle Mariners read my post about Marty and wanted to continue the chain of #PayItForward and give him something special. Something that he’d truly treasure: an autographed Ichiro jersey.
I stopped by the Mariners front office and picked up the signed jersey and then headed to Marty’s office.
As I arrived, he greeted me with the same huge smile as day before, when we first met. Only this time he wasn’t sure why I was stopping by… and I couldn’t wait to tell him.
I expressed how grateful I was for his gift to my sister, and that his actions not only inspired me to give more, but thousands of people in our community were also impressed with his willingness to give.
He was bit confused so told him about my post on Facebook from the previous day. Marty is not on social media so he had no idea what had transpired over the past 24 hours after I posted about his generosity. So, I filled him in: 125+ shares of my post, 2,200+ likes, and 100+ comments. All because of his kind deed.
He now knows the power of social media!
Then came the moment: I presented him with the signed jersey.
Marty’s eyes lit up as I handed him the jersey.
He slowly leaned back in his chair while staring at the jersey in disbelief as he continued to process what was happening.
A slight gloss began to shine from his eyes, and he didn’t say anything for nearly 20 seconds.
He didn’t have to.
Finally, he spoke: “No one has ever done something like this for me.”
Then he gave me a hug.
I gotta tell ya, that was the best feeling ever!
I want to send a BIG thank you to the Mariners organization for being so awesome and making this possible.
The power of giving is real. You might not be rewarded immediately, but it will happen.
However, as Marty knows, the real reward of giving is seeing the smile on the face of the other person.
I’ve now experienced that reward first hand, and he’s right…
That feeling is worth more than any amount of money.
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Here’s the Mariners’ post about this experience.
We also got some national attention on MLB.com!
