For my 21st birthday, my sweet mommy took my entire family to Las Vegas for a long weekend. We stayed in a super fancy presidential suite with a full kitchen, living room, and three bedrooms. When we arrived, the first order of business was going grocery shopping to stock our full-size fridge for the trip. Admittedly, we went a little crazy and bought enough food to last our group of six for a ten week excursion through Africa. Oh well, we would just eat more than necessary so we didn’t have to dine out every day. We spent our time exploring Sin City, eating unlimited crab legs at buffets, partaking in a few adult beverages and gambling a bit.
As the weekend drew to a close, it was very clear that there was no possible way that any of us could consume one more soda, granola bar, bowl of cereal, Slim Jim or piece of birthday cake. With hotel check-out creeping up on us, we began giving food away to the bell-hops and housekeeping ladies. Lucky for us, we all had backpacks as carry-ons for the plane, so we stuffed them full of everything that did not find a good home elsewhere.
Our flight didn’t leave for five hours after check-out, so we all split up for the rest of the day to go see the remainder of “hot-spots” that we missed earlier in the weekend. My brother and I set-out to see New York, New York and ride a roller-coaster or two. As we crossed the bridge over Las Vegas Boulevard towards our destination, I saw a homeless man holding a sign that read, “Please help. God Bless.” I smiled politely as we passed and proceeded to spend the next hour with complete disregard for anyone but myself and the awesome roller-coaster that we rode three times.
As we left New York, New York, I popped the top on a Diet Fruity Something-or-Another Cola that was stuffed in my backpack. It was terrible. I was about to throw it away when I remembered the homeless man and thought, “Hey! I bet he would 
totally love this Diet Fruity Something-or-Another Cola because he is probably really thirsty in this heat!” I slurped off the excess cola from around the rim of the can and made a B-Line towards the man conveniently sitting in the same place as we had last seen him. I bent down and asked if he would like it, and explained that I only took one tiny sip but didn’t want to waste it because I wasn’t going to finish it. The man quickly took the drink, smiled his dirty, crooked little smile, and said, “Thank you!”
As we walked away, I glanced back to see him happily chugging the drink and mentally patted myself on the back for being a selfless, wonderful humanitarian. Right in the middle of my silent praise, my brother looked at me and said, “Great, maybe next we can go find a sandwich that you can take a bite out of and give to him.” I honestly thought it was the best gesture EVER. Guess not.
In all seriousness folks, Colorado has been going through a LOT lately and it is constantly in the back of my mind that many people are in need of our help. After the wildfires that blazed through our state last month, the number of homeless children that will be attending school this year rose from 12,000 to over 22,000 kiddos in the Denver Metro area. Many of these kids will be starting the year without basic school supplies (paper, pencils, etc.). I’m lucky enough to have this platform to reach as many people as I can and today, there is something you can do to help!!! Several of our local radio stations are working with Feed the Children to provide backpacks loaded with school supplies for as many kids as possible. Click here Feed The Children to buy one (or more) backpack for only $20! All donations are tax-deductible and you will all be my most favorite people ever for helping!!! Thank you! -Mer
FUNNY! That was really sweet of you!
Such a funny story! No good deed goes unpunished!