A Washerwoman's Mite (Might)

The following was printed in Acacia: A Newsletter of the Africa University Development Office.

In the late 1990's, one woman's radical act of kindness and generosity sent tremors throughout the philanthropic world. Miss Oseola McCarty was born in the Mississippi Delta at the turn of the 20th Century. Her formal education ended in the sixth grade when she left school to care for an ailing aunt. By the time the aunt had regained her health, Miss McCarty's classmates had left her so far behind that she decided not to return to school. For the next fifty or more years, she worked as a washerwoman, living frugally and saving most of her earnings. After retiring in 1994 at the age of 86, she decided that she would give her life's savings to her hometown university to establish a scholarship fund for financially needy students. She wanted to give others the chance that she never had. She gave $150,000.00 to the University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg to establish a scholarship fund. Ms McCarty died in 1999 at the age of 91. In 2001 Worth Magazine listed her sixth of 100 individuals of the 20th century who changed the way Americans think of money. Miss McCarty changed the way we think about what we can really afford to give to charity.

God is calling the people of Coffeyville First UMC not to extraordinary wealth, but to extraordinary generosity. With God's help, all of us can be extraordinary givers.