Consider the blessings of giving

Two different people approached the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman last week with an interesting twist on the idea of holiday giving.

First was perennial Valley do-gooder Israel Nelson. He sent us a note telling the story of a trip he took in December 1990 to St. Petersburg, Russia.

There he saw destruction remaining from World War II.

“Poverty was rampant among the residents,” Nelson wrote. “I came back to the United States in mid-December and was assaulted by the commercial push that was rampant. It sickened me.”

For the past 20 years Nelson has urged his family and friends to omit him from their lists of Christmas giving. Instead, he said he’d prefer they used the money to make a donation to their favorite charity.

“I pledged that I would do the same,” he wrote. “I have kept that pledge every year since.”

He says his daughter is among the family members and friends who have adopted the tradition.

This year he’s extended his invitation to give to Frontiersman readers, too.

He’s invited readers who like the idea to contribute to the Low Cost Housing Fund of the United Protestant Church, 713 South Denali Street, Palmer, AK, 99645.

“Giving such an honoring gift might be a better way of sharing Christmas joy than buying another scarf or other trinket for someone who already has too many scarves and trinkets,” he wrote.

Nelson said donations go toward completing the house for Jim White and his family. According to the builder, Bob Pevan, who is supervising the project for Mat-Su Home Builders, the group still needs about $40,000 to complete the house.

So far, the community has raised enough money for the family to put walls and a roof on the new house and to install its septic system, Nelson said.

“We have already come so far,” he said. “One more push and we’ll be over the top.”

The other person to tell us about their plans to forgo the commercial aspects of Christmas in favor of a charitable focus was Charter College (http://www.chartercollege.edu/) Dean of Education Frank Baker. He said this year the school’s staff picked five names from the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree.

Instead of exchanging gifts with each other, Charter staff will instead buy items for those five people, Baker said.

Fresh on the heels of Black Friday and on the cusp of Cyber Monday, consumerism is at its apex this time of year. And if we haven’t made our gift giving lists already, we’ll be making them very soon.

We don’t mean to be Scrooge about Christmas; it’s one of our favorite times of the year. But when you do your Christmas shopping consider buying from local merchants or buying Alaska-made gifts.

Or, maybe it’s a good time to join the Nelson family and consider starting a new family tradition this year — one that focuses on the blessings of giving rather than receiving.