Put those buckets up!!
This past weekend I was running around town doing errands and came across three different youth groups in a fund raising activity. One was a baseball team, the other was a football team and the third was a cheerleader group. I had children in various activities and I fully understand the need to raise funds for equipment and trips. So you may be surprised to know that I didn’t offer to participate in any of the three events, and in fact, wanted to chew out their sponsors. Why you ask? Why would I not want to help out youth trying to raise funds? The answer is simple. All three groups were panhandling!
Yes they all had buckets asking for “contributions” to help with their costs. I’m sorry but I find that extremely despicable as well as teaching these kids that someone else should take care of your problems. If they had been selling candy or offering to take groceries to cars, that would have been different. Maybe washing cars, selling doughnuts, wrapping paper….anything. I would have most likely done at least one of them.
Now at the risk of offending anyone that has participated in one of these events, these parents and sponsors should be ashamed. It is not other folks duty to pay for your kids to be in these organizations. If you can’t afford it and the kids cant have a real fundraiser, then don’t be a part of it. Life is tough and life isn’t always fair. When you get older you don’t always get what you want and you generally have to pay your own way in life.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind a little help getting my mortgage paid off early. Could some of you guys help me out please? My paypal account is………………
Speaking of obnoxious kids, a restaurant in North Carolina has decided to ban screaming kids. My hat goes off to them! No my kids were not always angels, but if one of them acted up, I got up and left with them, though honestly it was extremely rare. To sit there and let your kids scream and cry and not do anything is extremely irritating, and I’m glad to see this place do something about it. More restaurants should join in with this policy. I was at a fast food place recently and a couple had a child with them who for some reason just started screaming and whaling away. These people did nothing until they were through eating and finally left. The management chose not to do anything either. I think more establishments should have the guts to take a stand like this. They would certainly have my business.
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I completely agree with you muser! I am very active with the booster club for Davidson’s baseball team and I will not participate in a “bucket drop”. I insist that the players must do some type of work in order to raise money.
1Yeah I remember selling tons of doughnuts at the old malfunction junction! Once my last box had a bunch of ants in it so I left. I wondered later if some of the other boxes that I had sold had ants!
2Hear! Hear! on the donation thing. I’ve bought cookies, and candy, and had my car washed many times, by kids trying to earn money for their cause. But like you, I never just put money in a bucket.
I remember many years ago when a group was playing Monopoly
non-stop for 3 days to raise funds for a trip to Washington, DC. The game was played at the local mall. One young lady had the gall to write a letter to the local newspaper, and say that people who walked by without donating were ‘cheapskates’. Let me tell you, I came unglued. I fired back a letter saying that it was far more important to me
to see that my children had shoes to wear and lunch money for school than it was to pay for her and her classmates to take a fun trip out of state. I also mentioned that I took trips while in high school, but each student was responsible for
paying his or her own way. In my case, I paid with money I’d earned from my paper route. Other kids held car washes or mowed lawns or whatever it took. It never would have occurred to us to stand on the corner with a bucket and beg.
Well, now, I’m going to mention two exceptions….I do put money in the firemen’s boot when they have their drive for the telethon, and I do put money in the Salvation Army buckets at Christmas time.
3Hey Hambone, yeah this post was strictly relsated to the events people covering fundraising that people should be doing on their own. No way would I pass either of the two you mentioned. Also, there is one of those Shriner guys I see all the time, collected for the kids hospital. Never pass him by.
4Never given it much thought, but I totally agree. My kids did exactly what you said…they sold Coke’s, candy, washed cars, or work at the local grocery store bagging groceries to raise money. They never pan-handled on the street.
But…if Obama gets re-elected, there may be several of us pan-handling on the street for money!!
5True and what I would be willing to do for food may be a whole lot different than what I would do to send my kid to Disney!
6Last week one of the highschools had a car wash fundraiser for the girls cross country team. I think they might have overdone it a little with the short shorts and wet shirts, but they sure had a lot of customers. Curiously mostly men.
7Your such a cynic! You know its impossible to stay dry when your washing cars. As far as customers, most guys make it their responsibility to keep the cars clean, so there you go!
8Sam. You are a complete cynic. Always have been. BTW..where was that car wash? Are they doing it this weekend? Just asking.
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