Executive Times
		2008 Book Reviews
		Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton
Rating:			***
		(Recommended)
		Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com
	Something Bill Clinton’s book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, may not make any reader mad. In what may be as non-political as the former President can get, Clinton uses this book to inform readers about the myriad ways in which we can contribute and time, talent and treasure for the benefit of others. The theme of the book is that we can all give something. By the last page, every reader will receive new ideas on what and how to give. Here’s an excerpt, from the end of Chapter 3, “Giving Time,” pp. 52-55: Just as with the gift of money, some of the most impressive time-givers are young people. In 1993, a once-in-fivehundred-years flood hit the heartland of America as the Mississippi River poured over its banks and levees, inundating cities, towns, and farmlands. I traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to survey the damage, encourage the citizens, and meet with the emergency teams working to minimize the destruction and take care of the people who were flooded out of their homes. I also visited the volunteers who were stacking sandbags and delivering food and supplies. As always in such situations, all those I met were energetic, dedicated, and selfless. But one stood out. Her name was Brianne Schwantes. A native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Brianne had come to Iowa with her family to work in the Red Cross volunteer center and help deliver food and supplies. She was just thirteen, quite small for her age, and her body showed the effects of having been born with a rare bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta, which made her skeleton incredibly fragile and every bone in her body vulnerable to fracture under the slightest strain. She had thirteen broken bones at birth and her doctors told her parents they didn't expect her to live through the day. But live she did, going home with her body covered with tiny casts and Popsicle-stick splints. Her parents decided that instead of shielding Brianne from all risks, they would try to let her live a happy, healthy life, being as careful as they could, while accepting that bad things would happen. They let her be a kid and take chances, promising themselves not to blame each other when another incident occurred. Growing up, she broke the long bones in her leg about once every six months and broke toes, fingers, and ribs more frequently. By the time I met her she had undergone numerous surgeries. But she had a smile on her face, and determination in her voice. She had already testified before Congress five times to urge more funding for the National Institutes of Health, and had started Little Bones, a quarterly newsletter for children suffering from rare diseases, which has more than five thousand subscribers worldwide. Brianne didn't stop giving her time after the flood. When she was fifteen, she worked with Franciscan missionaries to raise more than $25,000 for South African orphans. At eighteen, she worked as a counselor for the summer at Camp AmeriKids, a summer camp for children with HIV and other life-threatening diseases. At twenty, she co-founded and managed the first women's ice hockey team at American University in Washington, D.C. I met her again in 1999 with her college friends and was delighted to see her growing up just as her parents had hoped. Against all odds, she was a happy, healthy young woman, still deeply committed to community service. Throughout college, Brianne volunteered with the Heart of America Foundation, speaking to more than five thousand high school and middle school students about the importance of volunteering. When she went home to Wisconsin, Brianne kept giving. At age twenty-three, she organized young women in the Wisconsin Cherry Blossom Princess program (she was the 2003 princess) to donate books and read to local schoolchildren. At twenty-four, she organized a drive in South Milwaukee that collected more than seven thousand books for children in poor rural schools. At twenty-five, in connection with Washington, D.C.'s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, she helped organize a week of activities that included a community-service project at an elementary school. Very few of us have to take the risks to serve that Brianne Schwantes takes every day. It makes her happy. At the ripe old age of six, McKenzie Steiner organized her friends in California to participate in her second beach cleanup. She did the first beach cleanup with her school but was concerned because there was still trash on the beach when they stopped. So she decided to enlist her friends to do another one. She brought gloves and plastic bags for about twenty other kids to pick up bottle lids, containers, bags, and other trash. McKenzie told me she plans on doing a cleanup on her next birthday and several after that, and she is talking to her mother about organizing one a month. When I asked her why she did it, she said, "Sometimes animals die from people littering in the ocean.... I felt better for helping animals and people coming to the beach to swim." If someone as young as McKenzie Steiner can organize her own time-giving project and someone like Brianne Schwantes can give so much, surely we all can give something. If you're willing to volunteer, there is no shortage of organizations and projects that will be glad to welcome you. Many local newspapers run advertisements asking for volunteers who are willing to help but don't have a particular area of commitment. Or you can check out volunteermatch.org. You just put in your own zip code and it gives you a list of opportunities in your area. If you're not American or if you want to volunteer in another country, check out VSO at vso.org.uk for innovative opportunities to pass on skills to people in local communities. Whatever you do, it will almost certainly be educational, enjoyable, and rewarding. And remember, if everyone did it, we would change the world. I said Giving was non-political, but I didn’t say it wasn’t preachy. It didn’t take very many pages into the book for me to think “enough already,” as Clinton went on and on. Nevertheless, the message is a good one, and there are plenty of ideas and resources on these pages. Do or give something. Steve Hopkins, December 20, 2007
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	2008 Hopkins and Company, LLC The recommendation rating for this book appeared in the January 2008 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Giving.htm For Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 Phone: 708-466-4650 • Fax: 708-386-8687 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com www.hopkinsandcompany.com