View from the Bridge

Money makes the world go round.

Or, at least, that’s the conventional wisdom.

When I was eight years old, I was going to prove this maxim true. I was very interested in chemistry experiments, and I read on the back of a comic book that you could earn prizes if you sold sets of Christmas cards. One hundred boxes sold would get me a genuine laboratory for my house!

I set out to canvas the neighborhood in Groton, MA, where we lived at the time, and I was very effective in my sales. Admittedly, many sets were likely sold to friends and family but so too, to strangers as I cold-called houses up and down our street.

Many of my customers were elderly, and I think they bought cards from me as a kindness. There was one woman, I recall, who asked if I would be interested in shoveling her sidewalk. Later, it was cleaning the garage. Slowly, my card sales turned into neighborhood chores for this one particular neighbor.

What I remember most about this work were the conversations I had with her after I completed a chore. She was from Greece originally, and we would talk about her home country and stories about her times growing up there. After time, she began teaching me some of the Greek language. Always, she would share lemonade and cookies. And the cost of my labor? No money exchanged hands as I came to deeply enjoy the connection; it gave me a sense of fulfillment to help without asking for compensation.

Money is an important resource in our world, and Tabor Academy benefits from the generous support of our community. The financial gifts given to the school allow us to offer the best experiences for our students of today and plan for those experiences of tomorrow. Indeed, we could not operate without the support we receive year in and year out.

At the same time, giving takes many other forms: time, talent, engagement. Tabor profits mightily from the many community members who give back to their alma mater. In this issue of Tabor Today, you will read about the many ways the Tabor community gives to the larger world and it is some of the most gratifying aspects for a school to see its community members contributing so fully.

In the end, I did get my chemistry set and it was fantastic! At the same time, my early days as an entrepreneur showed me too that giving and receiving can be as fulfilling both with the exchange of a dollar and also with the connection of a friendship and work of meaning and purpose.

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Tony Jaccaci (@tonyjaccaci) • Instagram photos and videos