The Season of Giving
Today is Blackmail for Babies Day here at work. Make a minimum $2 donation to the March of Dimes, and you can...hold your breath...here it comes...WEAR JEANS TO WORK TODAY!! Eeeeeeeeee! I’m squealing like a girl!!!
I tease because it’s fun. The March of Dimes is a good cause, and to not have to put on our newly imposed monkey wear for a day? It’s a small price to pay.
What gets me though is that they’ve turned wearing jeans – the official company dress code for 21 years, until our new CEO declared that we looked like ‘vagabonds’ last month – into an incentive. One that coincidently costs the company nothing. You want to reward me? Show. Me. The. Money. Denim isn’t a reward. Cash to buy some denim is a reward.
But I digress, since as I pointed out above, saving babies is a good thing. But it really is the season of giving, isn’t it? Or at least that’s what it feels like.
I mean, I’m a lucky guy and all. I’ve got a roof over my head, a late model car, and something to eat at all times in the fridge. I’ve been on the broke side of the fence before, and believe me – it ain’t no fun. So now that my fortunes have improved, the Lovely Mrs. G. and I are glad to help out several charities, such as March of Dimes, Make a Wish, the local food bank, the Gospel Mission, and the Red Cross. But they keep on a-coming.
The United Way was through here last week, and all of us were barraged by posters, e-mails, and banners begging us to give up part of our paychecks every month to them. They used to make us go sit through a two hour United Way presentation, but these days it’s not in the budget to take 1,000 people away from their jobs, so now it’s a purely multimedia experience, and more information is available to you over your unpaid lunch hour.
Next week the Salvation Army is setting up their annual Angel Tree table, where we can pick out tags to buy presents for underprivileged kids. The Lovely Mrs. G. and I gladly do this every year, and we have a lot of fun picking out things we think the kids would like. They also run a Mitten Tree, and since frostbite is not a beauty mark I’d like to have, we always pick up a few pairs while we’re at it.
Next week is also the kickoff for the local food bank donations – bring canned non-perishables to work. They’re also trying to raise cash for the food bank, and if we raise enough, we’ll be rewarded with...yes, another Jeans Day!!! Mrs. G. and I like to help out the food bank, but sometimes I’m leery if the food actually gets to those who need it. I used to give stuff to the food bank in the small town we lived in, until I found out that the little old ladies who volunteered there helped themselves to the “good stuff”, and left the dented cans of cream corn for the hungry. (These were ladies who could very well afford their own groceries. They were just Iowa Cheap.)
After all these charitable events at work, in December we’ll have a couple of requests for donations from the blood bank (they actually send a blood-mobile and come onsite to pump our cells), a fundraiser for the Goodfellow Fund (a local toy drive), a bucket for Toys for Tots, a bucket for dog/cat food donations for the Humane Society, and God knows who else will want a cut. It’s exhausting, I tell you.
Still, it’s for a good cause, and if I can help even one family have a better holiday, then it’s worth it. And maybe I’ll get to dress down more often for my efforts.
If not, then I’ll probably donate my extra jeans to Goodwill.
I tease because it’s fun. The March of Dimes is a good cause, and to not have to put on our newly imposed monkey wear for a day? It’s a small price to pay.
What gets me though is that they’ve turned wearing jeans – the official company dress code for 21 years, until our new CEO declared that we looked like ‘vagabonds’ last month – into an incentive. One that coincidently costs the company nothing. You want to reward me? Show. Me. The. Money. Denim isn’t a reward. Cash to buy some denim is a reward.
But I digress, since as I pointed out above, saving babies is a good thing. But it really is the season of giving, isn’t it? Or at least that’s what it feels like.
I mean, I’m a lucky guy and all. I’ve got a roof over my head, a late model car, and something to eat at all times in the fridge. I’ve been on the broke side of the fence before, and believe me – it ain’t no fun. So now that my fortunes have improved, the Lovely Mrs. G. and I are glad to help out several charities, such as March of Dimes, Make a Wish, the local food bank, the Gospel Mission, and the Red Cross. But they keep on a-coming.
The United Way was through here last week, and all of us were barraged by posters, e-mails, and banners begging us to give up part of our paychecks every month to them. They used to make us go sit through a two hour United Way presentation, but these days it’s not in the budget to take 1,000 people away from their jobs, so now it’s a purely multimedia experience, and more information is available to you over your unpaid lunch hour.
Next week the Salvation Army is setting up their annual Angel Tree table, where we can pick out tags to buy presents for underprivileged kids. The Lovely Mrs. G. and I gladly do this every year, and we have a lot of fun picking out things we think the kids would like. They also run a Mitten Tree, and since frostbite is not a beauty mark I’d like to have, we always pick up a few pairs while we’re at it.
Next week is also the kickoff for the local food bank donations – bring canned non-perishables to work. They’re also trying to raise cash for the food bank, and if we raise enough, we’ll be rewarded with...yes, another Jeans Day!!! Mrs. G. and I like to help out the food bank, but sometimes I’m leery if the food actually gets to those who need it. I used to give stuff to the food bank in the small town we lived in, until I found out that the little old ladies who volunteered there helped themselves to the “good stuff”, and left the dented cans of cream corn for the hungry. (These were ladies who could very well afford their own groceries. They were just Iowa Cheap.)
After all these charitable events at work, in December we’ll have a couple of requests for donations from the blood bank (they actually send a blood-mobile and come onsite to pump our cells), a fundraiser for the Goodfellow Fund (a local toy drive), a bucket for Toys for Tots, a bucket for dog/cat food donations for the Humane Society, and God knows who else will want a cut. It’s exhausting, I tell you.
Still, it’s for a good cause, and if I can help even one family have a better holiday, then it’s worth it. And maybe I’ll get to dress down more often for my efforts.
If not, then I’ll probably donate my extra jeans to Goodwill.
posted by Tommy G at
10:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home