Share & Share Alike

Kids Radio holds its first Share-a-thon for the Odyssey Shelter for the Homeless. Jack and Connie hope listeners will pledge three thousand toys, pieces of clothing, or food before time runs out. If they reach the goal, Fishbine’s Jewelers will add five thousand dollars. Between pledge updates, the Whit’s End team presents stories about why sharing matters.

The first concerns twelve-year-old Jane, who is tired of sharing her room, clothes, and belongings with her younger sister, Ashley. When Ashley’s bicycle gets a flat, Jane refuses to let her ride along to Whit’s End and orders her to stay away from Jane’s possessions.

The next morning, Jane awakens in a world where everyone shares her attitude. Her family eats all the breakfast before she can reach it, and Ashley has her name engraved on a private container of butter. At school, Jane discovers that she forgot lunch. Caleb refuses to give her an apple he never eats, and Cynthia will lend no money. Jane sells a bracelet for seventy-five cents, still cannot afford much food, and finally kicks a vending machine when it withholds her cheese doodles. The principal calls her father, but even he refuses to share his car and makes her walk home.

Hungry and crying, Jane meets Ashley, who offers her a ride and half a sandwich without hesitation. Jane sees that Ashley’s generosity is far kinder than the selfish world she wanted. Life returns to normal, and Jane promises that Ashley may use her bicycle whenever she asks.

As the pledges continue, television newsman Everett Nielsen makes an overdramatic appeal for people to donate spare spaghetti strainers. Then Jack tells of Roy, manager of a run-down apartment building. The owner, Mr. Harding, entrusts Roy with twenty-five thousand dollars to repair cracked windows, rusty pipes, failing appliances, and other problems.

At Hardware World, a salesman tempts Roy with a bathtub operated by remote control. Roy decides he deserves it, then spends the rest of the money on a hot tub, stereo, pool table, and pinball machine for his own rooms. When a tenant complains about unbearable heat, a sloping floor, and a sickly sink, she discovers the luxury purchases and reports him. Mr. Harding fires and evicts Roy, reclaiming everything bought with the money. Roy has treated entrusted resources as his private property instead of using them for the people they were meant to serve.

Erica and Hayley Clark arrive with twenty-seven beloved stuffed animals. Each toy has a name and care instructions, and giving them away is plainly painful. Jack assures the girls that children at the shelter will value them, helping the sisters place another person’s happiness above their attachment.

The final tale follows Daniel, whose family’s entire supply of food is stolen. He spends a hard day working in a field and earns five barley loaves and two fish to carry home. On the way, he encounters a vast hungry crowd. A disciple asks him to share his basket with Jesus. Daniel hesitates because his own family has eaten nothing, but freely offers what he has.

Jesus thanks God for the food and for Daniel’s generosity. The disciples distribute it to five thousand people, and twelve baskets remain. Daniel carries home more food than he first surrendered.

With seconds left in the Share-a-thon, the drive remains twelve items short. Jack suddenly realizes that he has urged everyone else to give without pledging anything himself. He offers twelve “World’s Greatest Grandpa” mugs just before the deadline. The total reaches three thousand, the shelter receives the additional five thousand dollars, and Odyssey’s first Share-a-thon ends with its hosts practicing the generosity they have spent the evening describing.