The little, gold boxes that 152 business leaders attending an October seminar received are the gifts that keep on giving.
Inside the boxes were crisp, new $20 bills, and a challenge.
"Our challenge to you," the note inside the box said, "is to take this small gift and share it with someone in a meaningful way."
After the Laura Schanz Consulting Associates' Oct. 2 seminar titled "The Ultimate Gift," one person who attended wrote:
"Just wanted to let you know that I sent the gift along with an additional gift to Water Street [Rescue Mission]. Wanted to feed 50 people for Thanksgiving."
Another said:
"My job with a property management company exposes me to many individuals/families struggling financially to make ends meet and pay their monthly rent.
"One of our residents is a single mother that has recurring issues with her monthly rent. ... I took the money given to me at the seminar, added a little extra and put it on her account. Hopefully, she will be pleasantly surprised to see she owes a little less this month."
That's what Laura Schanz, president of the consulting firm, was aiming to accomplish with her annual Business Leaders Seminar: encouraging people in the business community to think about sharing their resources.
"It takes a lot of faith for business owners to believe that all the bills are going to get paid and not focus on profits, because the needs are so great," Schanz said.
She wanted to demonstrate that "sacrifice has its own rewards. It is a priority: People before profitability."
"It's funny," said Penn Ketchum, owner of Penn Cinema, where the seminar was held, "because the kind of connections that were made and the ideals that were carefully discussed are exactly the kind of things that people cynically say, 'Oh, nobody thinks that way anymore.'
"But they do, and this event was evidence that the spirit of giving and caring that made this country great is alive and well today."
'Bank account or legacy'Schanz started Laura Schanz Consulting Associates, headquartered on Lititz Pike, in 2005. Since then, she has held an annual seminar for clients.
When it came time to plan the 2007 event, Schanz decided to focus on the need to help others.
"We choose a book at the beginning of the year that we send to our clients," she said. The 2007 selection was "The Ultimate Gift," about a self-made man who tries to teach his great-nephew how to find purpose and meaning in life.
The seminar followed that theme, featuring a screening of the movie made from the book and a talk by Anne and Jonas Beiler, who founded the Auntie Anne's Inc. soft pretzel chain.
Schanz said the goal was to help clients think about the bigger picture.
"Businesses naturally are focused on profitability," she said. "They are driven by sales, results, numbers."
On the other hand, "the needs of people are limitless. As business owners, our resources are scarce. Balancing all that and facing those challenges, they're difficult for anyone."
She said she wanted clients to realize that "eventually it all goes back in the box. What's going to be left is either a bank account or a legacy."
To illustrate needs, Schanz invited representatives of 12 nonprofits, including Water Street Rescue Mission, Justice & Mercy, United Disabilities Services and Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center, to attend.
"They're full of people who are sacrificing opportunities for bigger-paying jobs or more prestigious titles or career advancement," Schanz said.
Jean Bickmire, administrative director of Justice & Mercy, which advocates for prison reform, said the seminar was an opportunity to raise the agency's profile among business leaders.
"We're all part of the same community," she said.
At the end of the afternoon, Schanz's clients each were given a gold box with $20 and asked to find a way to share the money to meet a need.
Schanz has been collecting reports since then about what recipients did with their $20.
Bickmire is packing a box full of holiday goodies for the troops overseas.
Ketchum said he gave his $20 to one of his employees and asked her to think about using it to make a difference.
"A little 11-year-old girl came to my driveway yesterday just as I was getting home from work, asking if she could mow our lawn," another client wrote. "She was willing to do anything to earn money to buy a bicycle.
"After asking where she lived, I found out she lived right down the street, back on a dirt road in a rather 'dilapidated' house. I had my purse over my shoulder, remembering I still had the $20 in it to give away. ... After talking with her a few more minutes, I gave her the money, and her eyes got real big, and she didn't say anything for a little while but then said thank you so much.
"An hour later she came knocking on my door and gave me a poem rolled like a scroll with the gold ribbon from the box that the twenty was in." The poem was titled "Kindness."
"We don't advocate sacrificing profitability," Schanz said. "But how much profit is enough?"
Helen Colwell Adams is a Sunday News staff writer. E-mail her at hcolwell@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-4962. 
