The Good of Giving: What Goes Around Comes Around

The holidays are a time for family and festivities as well as practicing altruism and expressing gratitude to friends and strangers alike. During this season of giving, Lick-Wilmerding High School is hosting a toy drive for the Horizons organization, handing out donations and school supplies to elementary and middle school students in need. Supply drives and other charitable acts are common during the holiday season. However, it is often mistakenly assumed that helping others only assists the receiver. How can acts of generosity not only benefit the recipient but the giver of such kindness as well?

This December, LWHS plans to give back to the community in a multitude of ways, one of which is a toy and supplies drive led by Nora Selcow ’27. The goal is simple, according to Selcow, “Just [to] bring a smile to the kids’ faces and help them enjoy their holidays a little bit more.”

Donations from the drive will be directly given to students in the Mission District. Though, these students aren’t the only ones who are positively impacted.

According to the Greater Good magazine, magnanimous activity causes a “helper’s high” reaction to be experienced in the brain. During this state of euphoria, hormones and endorphins including serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin are released throughout the body. These chemicals help relieve stress and regulate happiness and pleasure.

Lick-Wilmerding Psychology teacher Anton Krukowski commented on the relationship between altruism and gratefulness: “When you focus on gratitude, it boosts your own mood and it boosts your physical health as well as your mental health. And I think that’s closely related, like when you think about who you are feeling grateful towards, then it gives you a sense of generosity.”

In addition, acts of kindness are found to be correlated with better health and well-being. A 2016 study published by Eric S. Kim and Sara H. Konrath analyzed more than 7,000 adults in the United States. The participants were separated into two groups: individuals who volunteered at or donated to nonprofit organizations and those who did not volunteer. The study found that volunteers had better physical health and were more likely to use preventive health care services than the non-volunteers. The volunteers were also shown to have lower blood pressure and lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that regulates stress.

“When we do things for other people, it makes us feel much more engaged and joyful. That’s good for our health and our happiness,” Psychologist Susan Albers said.

Instilling this sense of generosity and gratitude across students is one of LWHS’s primary goals. In fact, this was one of the main objectives of the recent PPP day, an opportunity for schoolwide volunteering.

“It was nice to know that I was doing something for the community…I was proud and happy,” LWHS student Quentin Williams ’26 said. His Marine Ecology class helped collect trash data and monitored mole crab populations at Ocean Beach.

With the toy drive and PPP events, LWHS hopes to continue to foster this spirit of altruism throughout the holiday season and beyond in the Lick community.

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Celia Clark

Celia Clark is a senior and a writer for the Paper Tiger. In her free time, she loves swimming at China Beach, painting, camping, writing, and listening to music. Her favorite artists include TV Girl, Mac Miller, FKA Twigs, SZA, and Kendrick Lamar.

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