There are few things that everyone has in common, but gifting is definitely one of them. As someone that comes from a large family, I shop for presents at least once a month. Be it anniversaries, birthdays or hallmark celebrations, I feel like I’m constantly on the gift hunt. And to some people, that task comes easily. Whether it’s because the individuals that you shop for are easy to gift, or you just naturally have a knack at finding the perfect gift each and every single time, not all of us have that luck.
I’ve grown attached to the saying “tis’ better to give than to receive” and find extreme pleasure in seeing the happiness on someone’s face when they open up their present from me. I give myself a silent pat on the back for being able to read the person. After all, it is their special day – why wouldn’t they want to be happy?
When my gifts are opened to the opposite reaction, I crumble with defeat inside. I feel this way because I know exactly how that person is feeling. Too often I’ve been on the receiving end of a terrible gift, and know how uncomfortable it can be having to force emotions of joyous gratitude to the gifter. It’s awkward and you’ve got to do it. I’m not the best actor so I’m sure that whoever gave me those gifts knew that I was lying.
This past Valentine’s Day, besides going kickboxing, P and I also got each other small tokens of appreciation. We don’t often gift each other anything on Feb 14th, but this year was different. He surprised me with a homecooked breakfast (which we ended up making together, but was perfectly fine since we did it together), and I surprised him with Demarre Carroll’s #SIXBLACKTO hat.
Demarre teamed up with 3 teammates against 3 other teams from the Raptors to design their own signature hat that best represents Toronto and are competing to win in order for their supporting charities to receive awareness and funding.
You probably wouldn’t know this because I don’t share much about P on here, but he’s an avid basketball fan as well as a hat fanatic, so I just knew that this would be the perfect gift for him. He never was a big Raptors fan, but ever since moving to Toronto, he has adopted them as his home team. And although he already has quite a few other hats from various teams, I was content with knowing that even if he wasn’t completely fond of this particular hat, it’s purchase would be helping someone else out.
Personally I’m in love with #SIXBLACKTO due to its simplicity. If you don’t look closely, you can easily miss the giant black “6” embroidered into the front of the interior of the hat. It’s monochromatic design paired together with a minimalistic but chic leather bill and adjustable strap definitely makes it an easy target of being stolen by me.I wouldn’t be too surprised if this hat slowly migrated over into my closet instead of P’s.
But besides the design and how perfect of a gift this would be, I loved the fact that the proceeds of the hat goes towards CFF, the Carroll Family Foundation, which focuses on raising awareness & funding towards Pediatric Liver Disease. I’m not always the most philanthropic person, but being extremely supportive of charitable causes (especially ones that support scientific research – that’s the science nerd coming out in me), I just knew that this hat would be the ideal gift.
But without awareness, no campaign is succesful. To bring light to CFF as well as other charitable causes that other players are donating to, you can also help Demarre win and receive additional funding for CFF if you tweet using the hashtag #SIXBLACKTO. Sometimes raising awareness is more important than raising dollar bills. Without awareness, these types of foundations wouldn’t be able to be set up.
So I challenge you to gift with a cause. The next time that you need to go out and find the perfect gift for a friend, give them something that will also give a gift to someone else. Because let’s face it, we’re all living lives that anyone else would gladly give up their own for. So let’s help them live a happier life. For CFF, it all starts with a tweet.
