Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 06-01-2007, 05:16 AM   #1 (permalink)
pinche vato
 
warrrreagl's Avatar
 
Location: backwater, Third World, land of cotton
Community Service/Charity Experiences

I hope this doesn't repeat another thread, but my search revealed nothing similar.

I've seen it mentioned scattered around various threads, but I'm curious about discussing this in one encompassing thread. What are your experiences with charities, donations, and volunteer work? Horror stories? Inspirational stories? How much do you donate (cash or time or both)? Do you have it pulled from your paycheck or do you impulse-donate (or both)? Do you volunteer your time? Where and why? Do you and your significant other agree or disagree about some of these aspects? Would you consider this a relationship make-or-break characteristic?

The only donation I have taken directly out of my paycheck is something toward our college's scholarship fund. I face the usual Gestapo-style tactics at work from The United Way every year, but I don't donate money to them - only time. I have worked in many educational positions where our bosses' job security was threatened by their superiors if they didn't garnish a quota of donations specifically for The United Way. I've seen lists of non-giving employees published openly in attempts to humiliate them into giving to The United Way. I've seen rewards handed out by my employers to people who donated generous amounts of money to The United Way. I've never understood why The United Way is the obligatory charity of choice for so many businesses and it has always made me suspicious of them.

When Grancey and I lived in Iowa, we wanted to donate a piano to a needy institution (nursing home, after-school program, children's ward, etc.) that could use it. So, we contacted the local United Way office and began making arrangements for them to come collect it. The receptionist was extremely excited about our offer and it made us feel really good about what we were doing. But she kept calling back with odd questions about the piano's dimensions. She wanted specific length/width measurements and weight estimations. But it really got freaky when she called back asking about the type of wood and what color it was. When I finally started to press her about why she needed those details, she non-chalantly told me she wanted to make sure it would fit in her house. She wasn't going to allow that piano to go to a needy institution - she was sending her husband and sons to our house to grab it for herself! When I told Grancey, she fucking blew up! She called the lady right back and cussed her absolutely flat out. I mean it was a good, old-fashioned Southern tongue-lynching. To this day, we still refer that phone call as the highest point of intervallic measurements for verbal abuse. Needless to say, The United Way did NOT get that piano.

Since that day, we never donate any money or items to them, because we're never sure what happens to it. However, I run a service-learning option in our music program at work where my scholarship students must complete a specified number of volunteer hours and I rely heavily on The United Way to help me place those students with the proper organization. I generally find that I respect The United Way a lot more when I volunteer time and effort instead of cash or items.

We occasionally impulse-donate (like Katrina, or Farm-Aid, or something like that), but not too much. Lately, we've been getting phone calls from the Fraternal Order of Police asking for donations, and we're always scared shitless to just hang up on the police. However, last month we talked to an officer in our local FOP and she told us those phone solicitors for FOP are almost always bogus. She said you should always ask them which chapter they're collecting for in which city, and you'll find that they either hang up on you or they're calling for an FOP thousands of miles away.

Our alma mater used to call a lot for their annual capital campaigns, but one year I angrily confronted them on the phone about how they'd recently used donated money to pay off an outgoing football coach, and they've sort of left us alone since that.

We always make a big deal at Christmas about buying toys for needy local kids, and one year we adopted a whole family who we knew that went through a tragedy right before Christmas.

I guess the connecting theme in our charity is that we do not like to give distance/blind charity very much. We'd much rather help out with people we know or situations we're involved with. We avoid giving money and would much rather give our time.
__________________
Living is easy with eyes closed.

Last edited by warrrreagl; 06-01-2007 at 05:21 AM..
warrrreagl is offline  
Old 06-01-2007, 06:52 AM   #2 (permalink)
Crazy
 
noodlebee's Avatar
 
Location: Canada
I am too poor to donate money because of school. So it is mostly volunteering that I do. A lot of it was after school and/or lunchtime tutoring during my high school years. It was poorly organised by another student and me. We did not have any teacher to report to. One of the programs we did turned into "charity". The "tuition fee" we recieved was used to buy and repair musical instruments for the school. To this day, I don't know if it was correct or legal but the teachers and principal were happy with the result. The students we tutored didn't complain about paying money either.

Volunteering at an elderly home was done during university. It was my first time doing that and it was incredibly heartbreaking. Majority of the nurses were cruel. They shouted very loudly and treated the elderly like misbehaving kids. A lot of things were unfamiliar to me so I was too afraid to report back to my volunteer supervisor about how the nurses acted. My individual way of counteracting this was to spend more time with them even after the "dinner help" assigned for me. There was one time when I visited an old woman before dinner. She was crying and mumbling to herself while lying on the bed. A nurse came in and said with a loud and piercing voice, "Cheer up! It is time for dinner!" She did not ask her what is wrong or pay attention when the woman said "I don't want to go." She put her in the wheelchair in a very harsh way, asked me to take her to the cafeteria and left. So I just talked to the woman and hugged her. She reluctantly agreed to go eat when I promised to sit beside her. There were many times I cried after I returned home. When the elderly home moved to a location too far to go by bus, I quit.

So far, I think I am a newbie with volunteer organisations focusing on adults. Majority of my experience was inside my old schools or other schools (e.g. organising summer school activities for senior kindergarten and Primary 1 students). Things with children and teenagers are much simpler and less emotional for me, because there is so much more hope for them even if they are currently in bad situations. With the elderly, I feel depressed afterwards because a lot of them are in palliative care.

Hard to say why I do this. It is somewhat of a habit since Form 3. Since it isn't a bad habit, I don't have to quit. My boyfriend was forced to volunteer when he was in high school so he doesn't like it. He was also helping at an elderly home. That is generally a bad introduction to volunteer so I don't blame him. It is an "agree to disagree" situation but I recently asked him if he would give it a second chance and do something different. He agreed and hopefully we will either be teaching or building houses within this year.
noodlebee is offline  
Old 06-01-2007, 09:23 AM   #3 (permalink)
part of the problem
 
squeeeb's Avatar
 
Location: hic et ubique
i recently volunteered to help at the local st vincent de paul society with thier food drive, organizing the food donations. i enjoyed it, met some people, had a good time. i volunteer for charity stuff when i can, i don't look at it as doing something good for people, i look at it as a way to meet others, be part of the community, and talk to new people and hear their stories. you learn a lot of crazy shit talking to lots of crazy people.
__________________
onward to mayhem!
squeeeb is offline  
Old 06-16-2007, 11:39 AM   #4 (permalink)
Boy am I horny today
 
absorbentishe's Avatar
 
Location: T O L E D O, Toledo!!
Last summer, the youth went on a mission trip, and I went along as an (adult). It was a great experience, I got to work with people that really appreciated the help, and the kids really enjoyed it too. A week really changed my outlook on things.
absorbentishe is offline  
Old 06-17-2007, 09:44 AM   #5 (permalink)
Psycho
 
StellaLuna's Avatar
 
Location: hiding behind wings
I used to spend my summers at an educational "camp" in Virginia Beach. We got a lot of middle school kids from low-performing schools, academically gifted kids, kids who needed extra love and support to succeed, and had 8 weeks worth of classes at a very prestigious private school in the area. Teachers were all college students who were hand-picked for the experience, and we designed our own courses and stayed with those kids from 8 AM until about 4 PM when the day was over, through lunch and play time. We were given rooms at a nearby college dorm and $40 a week for food, and that was it. It was probably the most rewarding time of my life!
__________________
Screw tradition!
StellaLuna is offline  
Old 06-18-2007, 05:38 AM   #6 (permalink)
Tilted Cat Head
 
Cynthetiq's Avatar
 
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
I currently volunteer for Lifebeat.

I get to go to concerts and watch people approach a table full of condoms and HIV information.

Depending on the demographic of the show determines if there are giggling boys grabbing handfuls of condoms or if there are adults snickering at the female condoms.

Either way I get to see a free concert that I wouldn't normally go see.
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
Cynthetiq is offline  
Old 06-18-2007, 05:46 AM   #7 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
Years ago, when I was living in new york city, for a few years I volunteered at an alternative high school 2 nights a week. This was sort of a last chance high school for a lot of kids, who had been kicked out of every regular high school in the city, the girls (at age 16 or so) might have had 2 kids or more, the boys might have spent some time in a juvenille facility for various infractions... but most of the kids were there because they finally got the importance of a high school diploma..

I taught math and history to these kids and did prep for the exams that were required to graduate from high school... Doing this really made me appreciate some of the kids and the really horrible conditions some of the lived in...
__________________
Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
maleficent is offline  
Old 06-18-2007, 07:22 AM   #8 (permalink)
Addict
 
hagatha's Avatar
 
I do a lot of volunteer work with arts organizations in the city. I was actually thinking the other day that its been about 10 years worth of steady donation of my time and work. I am totally burnt out.
I don't know what its like for others, but my volunteer work took on second job status and was actually really exploitive by times.
I've decided once I wrap up my tenure with my current arts org, I'm going to volunteer with something meaningful, like some of the work mentioned by previous posters. Its one thing to give your time for a worthy cause, its another to just provide unpaid, unappreciated labour.
__________________
Thats the last time I trust the strangest people I ever met....H. Simpson
hagatha is offline  
Old 06-19-2007, 06:08 PM   #9 (permalink)
Currently sour but formerly Dlishs
 
dlish's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Australia/UAE
i will be leaving for malaysia in a few weeks on a charity trek to Mt Kinalubu to raise mone for orphanages in Borneo.

its a week-long trek that involves kayaking, trekking biking and rafting. ive taken time off work for this. im going back home to sydney for a week and then back to dubai.
__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy
dlish is offline  
 

Tags
community, experiences, service or charity

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:28 PM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360