What Happened to the "Fun" In fundraising?

Fundraising or Begging?

Sorry about the crappy pictures, I didn't want to hold up traffic.

 What are we teaching our kids? I live in a fairly large city, Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis, to me, is like a "mini-metropolitain" type city. The city is big, but not too big . Big and busy enough to have busy, dangerous, and broad intersections. Some in which require stoplight cameras due to the fact that those particular intersections have so many wrecks a month, according to the local police department. I am seeing kids literally begging  for donations for various neighborhood or little league football teams and pep squads in these hectic, crazy intersections. Half of the time I'm not sure they are legit because I do not see any adults around and when I ask the kids about their team or group and what they need money for, they are stumbling and bumbling over their words. (Sounds kind of fishy to me.) This past weekend, driving home from work, I approached this almost always congested intersection in the southern part of the city. Congested, yes, especially on a Saturday afternoon. There were kids, maybe 12-16 of them, boys and girls, maybe between the ages of 5-16,  on all four sides of the intersection, on the sidewalk, in the street, and in the median, with their football helmets, begging for money. Yes, they were begging, soliciting, what have you, the point is, it's wrong, teaches a lazy practice, and is extremely dangerous.  If you are going to get your kids out begging, at least teach them some proper etiquette. They don't explain who they are or what the money is for? How could they have the time, the red light is about to change? "Hey, ma'am, would you like to donate?" said this one kid, stepping into the street, leaning over into my rolled down passenger car window. "Donate for what," I asked. He names a football team I've never heard of (it's a little league, so I am not familiar with many of the teams), no name on his Jersey shirt, just  a helmet. Make a believer out of me. I asked him, 'where is your sponsor or coach?' Of course he wasn't in the street playing "dodge cars" risking his life with those children. He was posted up in his air conditioned car, maybe 100 ft away in a fast food restaurant parking lot. The kids had noone watching them, noone directing them, no guidance whatsoever.

On top of that, there was a police car at a gas station in a nearby parking lot. (Don't ask me what they were doing. You would think they would have gotten the children off the street.)

Where is the "fun" in that fundraising? Ducking and dodging cars and trucks, trying to get as much money you can before the light turns green. That's not fun at all. What wrong with the car washes, bake sales, candy sales, etc.? We could teach our kids to be creative. Have a karaoke party or a pajama party. Properly managed and supervised, these ideas could be good ways to raise money. A fish fry or barbeque plate sales are other good examples of fundraising. Gather your team up and cut some lawns, trim some bushes, paint some houses, these are good sources for funding as well. Let your community know you want to help the neighborhood look good as well as raise money for your team. Host a health walk or run. Let your community know the importance of excersie and diet. Your team would be relaying an important message as well raising funds for their group. These ideas and other fundraising ideas are better than teaching the children to beg. Proper fundraising is not only profitable, but it will help the participants to understand purpose of hard work and to help them to become more productive citizens in the future.

For more fundraising ideas please check out my article: No Soliciting:Fun Fundraising Ideas

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