Thanks to Them

It happens in a flash, an instant. Suddenly lives are changed for the better.

Millions of ordinary Americans, usually with little or no recognition or praise, offer extraordinary time to try to improve their world. But their path to good deeds often starts with halting, quirky steps: a debilitating illness and a prayer. A spanking in a youth center. The speech of a nun. A chance meeting at sea with dolphins.

No matter how they decide to do what they do, however, their efforts can by quietly moving: lonely seniors are no longer neglected; high-risk teen-agers get attention from a self-described former tough; crime victims receive some care and attention that the system never could give.

For all the labor, the hard work of all too many largely goes unsung. On a day of thanksgiving, it’s worth telling some of the tales of kindness.

Here are a few:

Dave Kolstad

President of Management Action Programs of Sherman Oaks, Kolstad is also a pilot with Angel Flight, a nonprofit organization that ferries medical supplies and patients. He also assists ACCION International, a private sector Peace Corps, a micro-credit network making small, low - interest loans to the self-employed of 14 nations. “We’ve all seen that slogan: ‘He Who Dies With the Most Toys Wins.’ I think very much the opposite, that life is a process and that you have to live every day as richly rewarding as you can.

“I spent much of two summers in Mexico when I was in college. I remember earning $120 a month for that summer of 1965--and I was a little bit chagrined to learn that there were people in the factory where I was employed who had six or seven kids and were earning only $60 a month.

“I did get to see what it is like in Vietnam--helped out at an orphanage there for a while--and I know that’s not a very good place to live. So Third World work comes kind of easy to me because we do have it so well.

“So to me, working for ACCION and Angel Flight represents a sense of obligation, gratitude for all the ways that I’ve been blessed. It’s a way to repay those bounties.

“Sure, other people could do these things better than I do. But they don’t. So I feel I have to. That’s just part of who I am. And I can’t throw a ball at the Ahmanson Center and get all the power people of Los Angeles to support things. I’m just not that kind of person. But if you stop and think about it, we can all do something.”