Pay It Forward

I was listening to CBC radio earlier this week to an interview with Carol Burnett. She was telling the story of how she came to be a comedic actress. She won a scholarship at University of California in Los Angeles where she studied theatre arts and English. In the mid-fifties, during her junior year, she met someone who changed the course of her life.

The theatre teacher asked the students to create a skit that would be performed in front of the class and graded as their year end exam. The teacher approached Carol Burnett and her group and asked them to perform their skit, a scene from Annie Get Your Gun, at a cocktail party he was giving in San Diego. He would grade them based on their performance at his soiree.

Carol, Don Saroyan, her boyfriend at the time, and their friends borrowed a car and scraped money together to cover the cost of gas to travel to San Diego. Their performance was well received. Later, Carol was at the food table filling her purse with hors d'oeuvre to bring back to her grandmother with whom she lived (they were very poor and surviving on welfare). A man approached her and she thought, "my goodness, they caught me, my reputation is ruined!" Instead the man congratulated her on their skit and asked her what where her aspirations in life. Burnett replied that she wanted to be an actress and a singer. The gentleman asked her what she was doing about making her dream become a reality. Carol said that she was trying to put some money aside to go to New York. She dreamed of making it as an actress and singer on Broadway. He said he would like to help and handed her his business card.

Burnett and her boyfriend drove back to San Diego a few weeks later to meet him. Burnett described how awed she was when she was showed into the man's palatial office with the cushy carpet and the mahogany desks. The man surprised her by handing her a cheque for $1000 to get her started in her acting career. (A thousand dollars was an enormous amount of money in those days - it was enough to get her to New York city and pay for room and board for a good while.)

Her benefactor attached four stipulations to the money: she must use the money to move to New York to try her luck; she had to repay the loan within five years; she was honor-bound to help other young people attain careers in the entertainment business and most importantly, she must never reveal his name to anyone. That man changed the direction of Carol Burnett's life with a selfless act of generosity. In some ways, he has given Carol Burnett and her comedic genius to the world.

Doing good deeds is the premise of the movie Pay It Forward. A teacher challenges the kids in his class to come up with an idea that could change the world. The kids have all sorts of ideas ranging from organizing a neighbourhood clean up day, to donating toys to poor children. But the hero of the movie, a young boy, comes up with this idea that if you do a good deed for three people and you ask those people to do a good deed for three other people and ask them to keep paying it forward, you could change the world.

Oprah challenged her viewers to do just that in October 2006. Oprah gave more than 300 audience members the opportunity to experience what she calls "truly the best gift"…the gift of giving back. The audience received $1,000 to donate to a charitable cause of their choice.
With only one week to fulfill the challenge, these amazing men and women hit the ground running. You can read their stories here.

Inspired?

• What is the last good deed you have done?

• Have you ever been a recipient of a "pay it forward" act of kindness?

• What would happen if you purposely set out to help someone this week and asked them to pay it forward? Who would you help? How would you help?

I would love to hear back from you. Tell me your stories. Who knows, maybe we could start our own little Pay It Forward movement...