Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Strange fund raising schemes

La Tomatina: A festival that my niece was at earlier today in  Bunol , Spain in which
thousands of people take to the streets to throw 40 metric tons of tomatoes at each other
As far as I know, no one has suggested that they reroute these tomatoes to Africa like the zillions of Facebook pages that suggest that people stop pouring water on their heads to raise money and send the water some how to Africa
How to get people to donate to charities? Back when I was 'working', a newly arrived in the US colleague asked me about why would she pay people to walk 60 miles to raise money for breast cancer research? She wasn't against giving money for research, she was just questioning why people would have to walk. It was all so strange to her and I could not provide a satisfactory explanation.

She must be  shaking her head wondering why pouring ice water on one's head is a way to raise money for ALS research. Already an ice bucket challenge death has been reported. An 18 year old Scottish man jumped off a cliff into a rock quarry shortly after being doused with ice water. I would think his landing in a rock quarry had more to do with his death yet it is touted as an ice bucket challenge death.

And the ice bucket backlash with photos of gaunt Africans carrying water containers for miles on their heads while we just dump it on our heads. Not that water is hard to come by here. A big storm blew by yesterday dumping lots of water and blowing powerlines down. I drove right after in the aftermath to  pick up a friend from the airport. Pools of standing water everywhere.

The last library day was yesterday with the grandbabies for a while. Next week school resumes though Maya's school still hasn't published a calendar. Oliver has felt he is too old for it so he works on the computer. Maya started to participate in the activities but soon froze up again. About 60% of the participants are Chinese. The story teller last week asked politely for the adults not to talk loudly amongst themselves while she is telling a story but this fell on deaf ears or at least ears that didn't understand English or basic politeness. Maya is often the sole African-American even though there is a large population of African-Americans within walking distance.

Allie's daycare is closed yet again to give more time off for the workers so we've been filling some of the gaps. She is so cute though.


1 comment:

Elephant's Child said...

It is sad that so many charities need a gimmick to get people to contribute. Sad and bad.
I don't usually support the fun-runs and the like. I do support a number of charities but contribute on a regular rather than a one-off basis, which I hope gives the organisation more certainty.
And, climbing onto my soap box, I will not sponsor a child. I wonder what happens to the less 'photogenic' children in the community/family and would much rather support and empower whole communities.

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