I was reminded of my last big charity effort:
So I used to work for this huge, big, monolithic cable company that held a competition for homeless donations.
The rules were simple:
The workgroup (we had 14+2 Sup’s) that came up with the most donations, pound for pound for this homeless shelter won a pizza lunch. Of immediate need were trail mix (it was cold, and they wanted something to give to homeless folks that they couldn’t let into the overcrowded shelters.) Every pound of this trail mix or ingredients for trail mix gave folks 2 pounds for every one one donated in the scoring tally.
Well, I got a bit irritated at folks crowing for days about their 2 lbs of canned beans, and left-over top ramens.
Now, we have a background in food service. I figured out a long time ago that restaurant supply houses were the places to go for these things, so I jumped at the chance to leverage those skills. All of these shelters have soup kitchens, which are fully inspected restaurant kitchens, so they would have no problem mixing stuff up.
I asked around, and everyone was able to contribute between 10 and 12 dollars. That was 192 dollars at 12 a person we had to spend. I set a date, sent out two reminders, and one person opted out—his choice, I covered his 12 bucks.
For two weeks, they were coming by and asking for our donations, but we didn’t have any—we had a secret plan!
The deadline was a Thursday, and the tally boards were up, and groups had 10 lbs, sometimes 15 lbs. That morning, I drove to the local supply house, and bought cases and cases and cases of nuts, dried berries, dried fruit, chocolate chips. With the leftover money, I bought a box of premixed trail mix.
That morning, I came to work 1 hour late, but it took 3 handtruck loads to get it all up the elevator. We filled an entire cubicle with all of it. It was 102lbs of foodstuffs, all of it for 192$ (works out to be 1.92 a lb—great price for trail mix.)
With the double points scheme, we ended up with 204 points. The nearest competitor had 22 lbs.
The face of the HR rep who came to pick up the stuff was priceless. She had brought by a small box, expecting a can here, a can there. We offered to help the stuff to her office. She laughed, and said she wouldn’t be able to get the stuff *into* her office.
That wasn’t the best part, tho: The pizza lunch was spurned by the rest of the group. They asked that the money be donated to the shelter as well, and signed a group request that this happen. I was extremely proud of my coworkers that day. They later brought in sandwiches for us, but it was our boss that bought them out of her pocket.
folks, buy some toys for this gal. No matter where you stand on the war, those kids deserve our compassion, and if a stuffed animal helps them through, than it is upon us to help them out. I know that I will.
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