To Save a Life or Buy a Shirt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Christophers' Jerry Costello shares a story about a teenage girl who realized she had enough material possessions, so she decided to help others in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Save a Life or Buy a Shirt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Christophers' Jerry Costello shares a story about a teenage girl who realized she had enough material possessions, so she decided to help others in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christopher Closeup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-14T13:07:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/christophers\/files\/2012\/02\/JCostello.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/\",\"name\":\"To Save a Life or Buy a Shirt\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-14T13:07:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-14T13:07:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\"},\"description\":\"The Christophers' Jerry Costello shares a story about a teenage girl who realized she had enough material possessions, so she decided to help others in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"To Save a Life or Buy a Shirt\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\",\"name\":\"Christopher Closeup\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\",\"name\":\"Tony Rossi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tony Rossi\"},\"description\":\"After graduating from St. John's University in New York with degrees in Communications and English, Tony Rossi found a job at the Catholic media organization, The Christophers, that allowed him to indulge his interest in religion, media, and pop culture. 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{"id":1116,"date":"2012-06-14T08:07:14","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T13:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2012-06-14T08:07:14","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T13:07:14","slug":"to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/06\/to-save-a-life-or-buy-a-shirt\/","title":{"rendered":"To Save a Life or Buy a Shirt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>The Christophers\u2019 Jerry Costello shares a story about a teenage girl who realized she had enough material possessions, so she decided to help others in need:<\/p>\n

One of our mottoes at The Christophers is a simple one: \u201cYou can change the world.\u201d The words were written many years ago by our founder, Maryknoll Father James Keller. Even though I never worked with Father Keller\u2013never met him, in fact\u2013I\u2019ve read a good deal of what he had to say, and I think I know what he meant. He wanted people to believe that it was in their power to bring it about, that they could do it. And even if they can make a start at it, they\u2019ve already begun to change the world.<\/p>\n

I thought about Father Keller\u2019s motto when I read the story of teenager Chelsea Egan, written in The Record of northern New Jersey by Mike Kelly, a columnist for the paper. Chelsea lives in the Bergen County community of Haworth, goes to Northern Valley High School in Demarest, and shares many of her likes and dislikes with other girls her age. Like many of them, too, she gets a lot of birthday presents each year, and with her 15th birthday rapidly approaching, she had an idea to bring to her parents: Why not skip the gifts this year and collect money for cancer instead?<\/p>\n

The idea didn\u2019t pop up out of thin air. Chelsea lost one aunt to cancer and another was battling the disease, and she wanted to do something to help fight it. Thus was born the quickly-organized collection, which included donations ranging from 45 cents to $100.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop and consider those sums,\u201d Kelly wrote. \u201cThey\u2019re obviously small. And when it comes to conquering the monolith of cancer, they aren\u2019t much\u2026But they are something\u2013and that\u2019s the point Chelsea Egan was trying to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, it\u2019s quite obvious, were Father Keller\u2019s words come to life. In making a start at changing the world, Chelsea had already begun the process. She explained her thoughts on the matter a bit further:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents bought me lots of stuff for Christmas. There wasn\u2019t anything else I needed, though there was more stuff I wanted. But what\u2019s the reason for me to get more stuff? Would I rather save a life or buy a shirt? That\u2019s what it came down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she sat down and wrote a letter asking for contributions, mentioning her aunts and ending with these words: \u201cEvery cent counts. It would mean a lot more to save a life than to give me a birthday gift.\u201d Chelsea\u2019s Mom and Dad started the ball rolling with $100, her grandparents added $50, aunts and uncles and friends all chipped in. So did her freshman basketball team at Northern Valley. Chelsea herself donated all of her baby-sitting money for January, which came to about $50.<\/p>\n

At the outset she expected to raise about $200, and now she\u2019s closing in on $1,000. Not bad, what one person can do.<\/p>\n

The news cheered her aunt, who is still undergoing chemotherapy. \u201cIt just shows you that all you have to do is to take the first step,\u201d she said. \u201cIf everybody took that first step, no matter how small or insignificant it is, it could turn into something great.\u201d<\/p>\n

You, too, can change the world. It\u2019s just that every now and then, like Chelsea Egan, you do it a little bit at a time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"