How does that benefit?

One of my favorite Scouters had a huge influence on my life and how I evaluate the effectiveness of everything I do. Mike was more than willing to volunteer to help, but Mike couldn’t be out in the heat very long. You see he had a heart problem. I can’t tell you the details other than he had congestive heart failure because Mike pretty much refused to talk about it. He did not want sympathy. This landed Mike in the position of Business Manager for most of the day camps I ran. He sat in the air conditioning and handled paperwork that needed to be done and was the go to person if someone needed to find me for something. I kept him informed about where I would be at all times, but Mike’s role was much more than keeping up with that paperwork and keeping track of that Director, who did not want to stay in one spot! Mike was my sounding board.
This started off with me calling him about which the tedious details (i.e. Which kid was going into which Den, which leader to put with each den, and schedule changes). When I called I was always excited about all the cool stuff that was happening. As I would rattle off, Mike, we are going to be having the coolest hats you’ve ever seen, the t-shirts are the best design we have ever had, we are going to do this craft that is just so awesome, and this year we are going to take apart owl pellets to figure out what the owl had been eating! At some point, Mike would get quiet and he’d simply say, so Sharon, how does this benefit the boys? At that point, he’d make me go back through my list of way cool stuff and explain to him how each and every item benefited the boys.
Mike worked many an event with me and it became my habit to call when planning any event even if he wasn’t going to be there. As he made me go back through item by item and explain “how does this benefit the boys” I became much more confident about the quality of the program. If I couldn’t come up with a benefit that activity didn’t happen. When the family, scouts, and scouters came to me to thank me I always silently thanked Mike.
Today as I see babies, who are on lasix, I still silently thank Mike. You see, Mike was one of the subjects of the original lasix trials. Lasix is a medication that helps decrease the fluid around the heart and lungs. Mike succumbed to his heart condition several years ago, but I imagine him looking at the doctor and saying, but how will this help others. They weren’t giving him much of a chance for a long life. He knew he would probably die young, but he along with prolonging his own life he wanted to help others. I doubt he had a concept of just how much benefit he really would have for others when he started that trial.
Over the years, I have used his question to me as a measure of how well I’m doing my job whether it’s planning a scout activity, taking care of a failure to thrive baby or advising a family with autism. I haven’t done my job properly if I can’t answer this question. How have you benefited someone today?