The Little Philanthropist

I've got many reasons to be proud of my son (doesn't every mother?) but sometimes, if it's possible, he makes me more proud than usual. Before I get there, though, let me rewind the clock a bit...

A few weeks before last Christmas, we saw a television commercial for an aid agency that helped children in Africa. He turned and said to his father and I "Mommy, why don't they go to the store and buy food?". We explained to him that they didn't have money to buy food. With out missing a beat, he declared that we needed to help them get food. He didn't judge, he didn't say "get a job", he took it at face value and knew, deep in his heart, that the only thing to do was help another human being.

Help he has... With the help of his friends, he raised 19 kilograms of food at his 4th birthday party. His generosity continued through the year but with the Christmas season approaching again, his desire to help out came to the forefront.

He expressed his concern about helping out other kids this Christmas. We explained to him that not every family who wishes to celebrate Christmas could celebrate. We asked how he'd feel if he woke Christmas morning only to realize Mommy and Daddy couldn't afford to get him a present. He decided he had to help a family in need. We planned a Christmas dinner and decided to donate toys for a kid his age to the local Santa's Anonymous.

Today, we delivered our dinner to our local Food Bank and dropped the toys in the bin at the shopping centre. Just a fun fact; today, his donation weighed more than he did!

So yes, I am proud, enormously proud of him. Proud because he gets it, proud he understands he is part of the community, the province, the country, the world. Proud that he understands that it is his social responsibility to help out his fellow human beings. Proud that he understands that he can't have everything he wants. Proud that at his core, he is four years old and although he knows it is important to help, he's not above temper tantrums, stalling at bedtime and shoulder rides to bed.

This is my Merry Christmas and seeing the world through his eyes makes it the merriest one yet.

Our food bank was so happy to see a young friend, they tweeted his donation.

Something for Nothing

Recently, a story about hundreds of "Run for the Cure" t-shirts winding up, unopened, in a trash bin made the news here in Edmonton. It turns out, it was an "mistake" the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation admitted today. Generally, the spokesperson said, the shirts are donated to developing countries to help those in need. For some reason, this lot ended up in the bin.

I'm glad they realized their error but perhaps it is time we took a bigger look at the entire idea. So many places give things to their supporters as a token of their appreciation. T-shirts, bags, buttons, pens... The continual giving away of free stuff boggles my mind. I'm not a huge volunteer but in the past few years, we've amassed a silly collection of t-shirts in support of everything from Pride week to Adopt a Pet week. The majority of them have never been worn. TroubleMaker is the only one who wears t-shirts in our house and I can assure you, these are all too big for him!

I'd like to understand the point of asking someone to donate their time and/or money and then giving them a reward. To me, this is a gross waste of money, time and effort. Honestly, I am donating my time or money (or both) because I believe in the charity I'm supporting. Giving me something as a token of goodwill doesn't make me want to donate more time or money - it makes me ask the question "how much money went into making this t-shirt that is only going to end up in a dresser drawer never to be worn until we donate them to Goodwill?"

I am troubled by the idea that in order to get any person to do good things, a reward is required. I know in most cases, an 'entry fee' is charged and part of that fee goes to the production of the gifties, but imagine just for a minute that if the $5 it costs to make the t-shirt (that will likely end up as a cleaning rag or in a bag for charity) was actually put towards the charity, calculating $5 per shirt, times (a conservative) 5000 racers per location times 60 locations (number of participating sites across Canada) equals
$1500000 (in case you can't read the zeros like me, that is 1.5 million dollars).

That is a considerable number, don't you think? Maybe it's time we all just said "NO" to all the kind ideas that cost millions of dollars and put the money back towards the important things - like finding the cure!