When you pass a Christmas sale, it’s easy to think of it as another year of someone hawking trees to make a buck. There’s some accuracy to that, but what’s happening there is magical. What you’re seeing is the latest outbreak of kindness, hospitality, and, maybe above all, generosity.

I’m lucky. I have wonderful Christmas memories. Mostly Tonka trucks. I imagined myself behind the wheel and honking the air horn. I still fantasize about driving a Peterbilt rig and talking on my CB radio. I also have holiday memories of my parents and their acts of kindness for neighbors we knew and those we didn’t.

Fast forward to today, and I am, you guessed it, a Christmas tree consultant with the South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Rotary Club. Humblebrag, this is our 59th year of hawking trees in South Portland’s Mill Creek Park. I help customers pick out perfect Maine-grown trees and wreaths. I join hundreds of families’ Christmasses. I’m there to prop up and spin the trees, put fresh cuts on the bottom, and come to the rescue with tear-stopping candy canes. But honestly, there’s nothing regular about a shift on the tree lot.

On one shift this week, a gentleman asked me how he might make some trees available for families in need. After talking, he said he’d be back the next day. He appeared the next day with a friend and her two children. They purchased a dozen trees. This generous duo was Jesse Reynolds and Kim Nappi. Their unexpected act of kindness moved me and everyone on the tree lot. Jesse and Kim’s kindness is something we all should honor and strive for in our lives.

I saw in Jesse and Kim the kindness I witnessed in my parents 40-plus years ago. Their actions and role modeling led me to join Rotary. I became a Rotarian because I wanted to meet more people in my community. I wanted to do more for our neighbors in need. Unexpected kindness is what Rotary is all about, and it’s what our Christmas tree sale is about. One hundred percent of the tree sale profits are donated back into our community through scholarships, grants, and projects.

I often hear from people that doing more in their community is something they’d be interested in pursuing. And there can be no doubt that the pandemic and life’s other stressors may have more of us than ever looking for new ways to connect. What many of us are looking for is perhaps called “enlightened volunteerism.”

Enlightened volunteerism translates to putting aside differences and looking past growing barriers driving us apart. It means working together to lift those in need and inspiring young people to be community leaders, and celebrating kindness, or as Rotary calls it, fellowship.

If the idea of enlightened volunteerism sounds interesting, check us out on sp-ce-rotary.org. Thank you to everyone who invites us Rotary Christmas tree consultants to join in their holiday traditions!

— Special to the Telegram