Giving for the sake of Giving!

We live in a world where giving has become a bit of a dying art. We seem to be breeding a group that is focused on only giving when I get something out of this. Why? The art of giving has become confused wrapped up in strange new traditions. For example when I go to a birthday party at my age I don't expect to go home with a goody bag of treats I will enjoy. We have families now who create goody bags for kids who attend their child's parties. Isn't the invite and the food and and the games and the fun enough. Does it have to become a competition of who supplies the greatest goody bag gifts? Recently I heard a group of parents discussing wether or not they would donate to a school fund raiser. Surely this is the ultimate place to give because in the long run your children win. It can be donations of money gifts or time. This way everybody wins. Unfortunately we have an element now where there is a need to be thanked publicly, i don't disagree but when heard to say we weren't thanked enough is this just grandstanding. There are families who give to this school everyday. The help goes unnoticed and unheralded because to them its the giving that counts, not the fact that there name, company was splashed across the headlines and roared forth from a public address system. Sad!