“I was a child in Korea during the Korean War. We had nothing, but we still went to school. The only pencil I had was so short that I couldn’t hold it; I had to tie it to a stick to be able to use it. We had no paper, so we would write between the printed columns on old newspapers. That is how we studied. Then, all of a sudden, one day I got a dozen new pencils. Not just one—a dozen. And a notebook of paper was on my desk. We were all so excited. We started using these things without even asking where they came from. Years later, when I was a teenager, I learned it was American people who had sent those pencils and notebooks. I thought, ‘Wow! There are some people in this world who have enough that they can give to others. Good people. Generous people.’ And that’s how I first came up with my idea of being an American giver.”