Tag Donations

Dance of the Year

Michael 6 Comments

Happy Not Really Presidents Day. Yeah, yeah, I sound like a broken record (under 30s ask a real adult) but there is no such holiday. Never was. Should never will be. I guess the United Kingdom celebrates the Queen’s birthday but does anybody else set aside time for the collective past chief executives whoever they may be. Neither do we. Today is Washington’s Birthday (although it really isn’t, that’s Feb. 22) because he did a bunch of stuff that got this USA started. The other 44 are just hangers on.

If you want a good discount on a car, mattress, or living room furniture, today is your day. If you want to relive my in-depth look at the weirdos who have occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., check out last year’s post. If you want to really celebrate something special, keep reading.

Today is, in addition to a federal holiday, the day after Thon. Thon is the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, a year-long fund raising effort to combat childhood cancer. The money raised is donated to Four Diamonds at Penn State Children’s Hospital. How much? Since 1977 THON has raised more than $157 million for Four Diamonds. The Four Diamonds fund offsets the costs of the pediatric cancer care not covered by insurance and provides other services such as specialty care for the mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the children and their families. Research and medical support are also funded by Four Diamonds.

Maybe today should be a federal holiday because of Thon and other student groups across the country. Surely there are other similarly focused almost adults, but Thon is the poster child for these poster children. The largest student run philanthropic organization in the world, Thon has over 16,500 student volunteers participating in the year-long effort and more than 700 dancers took to the floor for this weekend’s 46 hour marathon.

For years, starting every fall, “canners” would fan out across Pennsylvania and beyond collecting coins at business entrances, sporting and cultural events, and traffic intersections. Mini-Thons, alumni, business partners, and “Friends of Thon” have helped but the physical canvassing raised a huge percentage of the total donations. This year was the first when due to safety concerns, canning was officially banned. Instead crowd funding and THONvelopes replaced the corner canners presence. And still they added to the “over $157 million.”

THON2019They’ve raised over $157 million. How much more? Add another $10,621,683.76 from this weekend. That’s short of the $13.4 million record from 2013, and far far less than say the $700 million donated to St. Jude’s Hospital last year but Thon’s overhead is probably a little less also. And you can’t argue that is still quite a total for a bunch of kids just helping out another bunch of kids.

So if you have a few minutes between mattress shopping and you’d like to justify your day off with something worthy of celebration to celebrate, now you do.

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Photo by Patrick Spurlock | Onward State

Good to the Last Drip

Michael 3 Comments

As we near the end of 2018, it’s time for a suggestion, not quite a resolution, more of a public service announcement-esque post, and one not even having to do with kidneys, but still about donors. Sort of. I can’t speak for your areas but around here people needing organs have been taking their requests to hockey games. Every couple of games somebody is holding a sign ‘Need a Kidney! Call…” and it gets picked up on that game’s TV feed, the nightly news, and every social media platform out there. And quite often the following morning news will report the searcher received tens or hundreds or even thousands of calls from people wanting to donate.

If one of those good Samaritans should qualify that leaves tens or hundreds or even thousands less one person left presumably still wanting to donate something. I have a suggestion for them. Blood. Yes, give blood.

January is National Blood Donor month. (If you’re curious, World Blood Donor Day isn’t until June. June 14th actually.) (As usual, no I don’t know why. It just is, but that’s okay. We can work with that. Just wait.) Did you know that like potential kidney donors, not everybody qualifies as a blood donor? The American Red Cross estimates that only 38% of Americans can donate blood. Unfortunately they also estimate that only 10% of Americans actually do donate blood. And giving blood is easy. (Easier than giving a kidney, in case you’re one of those people who called in paragraph 1.)

Let’s play a math game. About 36,000 units of red blood cells and 7,000 units of platelets are used each day in U. S. hospitals. Thirty eight percent of the American populace (if you figure roughly 330 million people in the USA) is about 125,000,000. A donor can give blood every 2 weeks. In 14 days red blood cell use hits roughly 575,000 units. That’s plenty of available supply to meet the demand. So why do we have blood shortages?

First go back to the 10% if the population who actually do give blood. Second, many of those give blood only once a year maybe at a work, school, or church blood drive. Some not even that often. It’s estimated there are about 16 million donations a year to satisfy a need of 15 million units. That’s not much margin for error.

BloodI’m not going to suggest you give blood every 2 weeks. But I will suggest you find a donation center somewhere close to you next month and celebrate National Blood Donor Month by joining those who give at least once a year. Then around June 14 you can celebrate World Blood Donor Day and double your output. And just so the second and fourth quarters don’t feel left out, donate another pint sometime in April and October. You’ll feel good about yourself, you’ll get a mini physical 4 times a year, studies suggest you’ll reduce your chance of having a heart attack, and you’ll get a cookie when you’re done. That’s way better than resolving to think about doing something useful.

 

 

Giving Thursday?

Michael Leave a comment

It’s been a week around here.  Quite a week.  Quite a month.  We made it through Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.  And let’s not forget the days leading to and away from these occasions.  What do they have in common?  Giving with a side of Guilt.  We can all admit it.  If it wasn’t for the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a lot of us would never get the chance to declare “Charitable Contributions” on next year’s tax return.

Around here one of the local television stations has been for years a major sponsor for an annual Thanksgiving food drive. For weeks they would broadcast PSAs encouraging donations to the local food bank to build the coffers as strong as possible for a special Thanksgiving distribution.  They even convinced a local bank to match cash donations physically made at the bank.  The day before Thanksgiving they announced the total amount raised.  An impressive amount but the amount isn’t important.  What is important is that even then, after all the food was packed, the turkeys were ready, and the meals were being prepared, people wanted to know if they could still donate to the food bank.

It was on Thanksgiving morning that the news programs all led off with interviews of volunteers at missions, shelters, kitchens, or what you will call them who open their doors to feed the poor and homeless.  While the organizers told of the number of men, women, and families who would stop in both to serve and be served, the cameras panned the pans of turkey, stuffing, vegetables, soup, and pies.  And on each TV station the intrepid reporter would ask if they had enough volunteers for that day if someone wanted to stop by to help.

The evening newscast on Giving Tuesday made certain that viewers realized that even though it was late in the day there was still time to hit the Internet to find a worthwhile charitable organization to accept donations.  They also had stories on the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign, the local clothing drives, and the donations car dealers would make to various associations if one test drove or bought a vehicle.

All of these had some sort of sense of urgency to them.  It was as though those who were responsible for these various drives knew that if the public didn’t get around to giving now it could be another year before people gave of their spare change or their spare time.

It might be that this is the time when wallets are opened more regularly but most people recognize that there are hungry people in May just as there are in December.  That a dollar donated to the free energy fund in spring still heats the water as it does in winter.  That a light jacket in April is just as appreciated as a warm scarf in January.

The needy have no season.  Unfortunate circumstances can befall any one any day.  If you didn’t get the chance to donate to your food bank, coat drive, or other charity this week, there will always be time.  It might have a catchy ring to it but Giving has no special day.  If you missed last Tuesday there are 364 other days to pick from.  And we believe that most do.

Now that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you.

 

The Angels Have Landed

Michael 1 Comment

All the discount department stores are doing it and they all advertised it in a big way.  Layaway is back.  Just like the old days.  Mostly toys ended up in the back rooms.  Just like the old days.  Maybe a few more children and grandchildren can have a happy Christmas like so many of their friends.  Just like the old days. 

It was a great idea.  But somewhere the marketing people got a late start.  The ads popped up around Thanksgiving.  Put a little down and pay some every week and they are yours pretty much pain-free.  Sounds pretty good.  Just like the old days.  But they didn’t push it until four weeks before Christmas.  That’s only one or two checks away.  Not many weeks to pay some.  Not like the old days.

But people tried.  They made the down payment.  They got the early payments in.  But then reality hit.  There are other children and grandchildren to buy for.  There are still bills to pay and food to buy.  The payments got smaller.  The balance stalled.  Christmas is less than a week away and now what?

Who knows how it started but somewhere, somebody took notice.  And the movement was born.  All across the country mostly anonymous benefactors are paying off strangers’ layaway balances.  The Layaway Angels have come to town.  Every town!

In Davenport, Iowa one Angel paid off 14 accounts including one account so delinquent that it was a day away from its merchandise being put back on the shelves.  In Indianapolis a woman paid off fifty accounts in memory of her late husband.  In Kapolei, Hawaii someone paid off 15 layaway accounts then handed out $100 bills to shoppers.  In Miami two Angels combined their resources to settle as many accounts as $400 could pay off.

Many of us have taken part in another Christmas tradition of giving, the Angel Tree.  Children’s services, older adults’ facilities, inner city ministries, and others team up with churches, school groups, and employers to select from unknown recipients and buy presents for under their tree.  Countless people, probably into the millions, have benefited from these anonymous gifts.

But the Layaway Angels are different.  These people are getting into the grittiest of the nitty-gritty.  They aren’t afraid of going right to the people who need some help.  And they aren’t afraid to admit that those people who need some help live and shop right alongside them.  These gifts are going up the road, across town, two blocks over, down the street.   They are going to people whose faces they’ve seen without knowing who they are.  They are going to children who have cried with longing in stores and who are going to get to squeal with delight at home.

Layaway Angel, Angel Tree, Secret Santa – so many ways to say Merry Christmas to those who aren’t close enough to hear it, but who deserve to hear it spoken loudly.  And if one of you reading is an Angel – Merry Christmas to you, too!

Now, that’s what we think.  Really.  How ‘bout you?