I was moved this week to read in the Redmond Reporter about the students of Norman Rockwell Elementary School collecting money for a child in medical crisis whom they learned about through Sparrow Clubs USA. They saw a situation that was wrong, and their compassion drove them to make it right.

I read the article to my children as an example of kids helping kids, which is the goal of the Sparrow Clubs. But my kids had troubling questions. Why was there a child that needed medical help from other kids? If there weren’t enough donations, did kids not get treated? Would their families be poor now? Could that happen to us?

I wanted to promise that it couldn’t. I wanted to promise that we as a country had a carefully planned system in place so that ill children didn’t have to rely on luck or the kindness of strangers to get the treatment they need without saddling their families with grinding debt. I know that such a promise would carry costs, but I think we should stop being afraid to talk about things like change and sacrifice — even taxes and regulation. I want to live in a country that makes that promise.

Charity is important. It benefits the giver, as well as the receiver.  That’s why we’re pleased when we see elementary students collecting pennies. But the situation should also spur us toward change — to take what’s wrong and try to make it right. Isn’t that why we give the pennies when they ask?

Emily Kay Johnson, Redmond

(Editor’s note: Emily Dickinson Elementary School is also involved in the Sparrow Clubs USA program.)