Thank you for the scholarship thing! I’m done with my education, for now, but I would have loved a personal scholarship (the school paid my tuition, but that isn’t a person I can send my report card to or anything.)
And if you wanted to sponsor my kid sister’s senior year at her private school, you’d not only get to meet an awesome kid (who can spell) but she’d paint you pictures. (We’ve been able to find a way to get her there for three years, but year four is not looking likely…which really sucks.)
Heheh - now then he’d have endowed a whole chair at the University too. Hmm, yes. Yeah, send it to the kid, postage unpaid, as a opportunity in creative approaches to problem-solving.
Seriously, wel done, BobT - I bet your parents would have been delighted.
BobT, you can probably get away with putting your chair in the dumpster for your building. Everyone in our darned neighbourhood seems to use our building’s dumpster as their own private landfill for items the city won’t pick up from their houses. The private waste management company has yet to leave any of their “offerings” behind.
I can relate to the frustrations of trying to be charitable as well. A couple of years ago, I attempted to volunteer at the local AIDS charity (funding and awareness projects, primarily). I had two interviews, a criminal record check and had to supply references from previous employers. I did everything. They accepted me and told me how thrilled they were that I was able to volunteer. They said they’d call me as soon as everything was “set up”.
They called me…six months later. By then, I was working. They were only interested in having me volunteer for them during the day (when I was now working). I told them I couldn’t and they were unbelievably pissy. I was available 24 hours a day for the past 6 months and the bastards didn’t call me. Now they give me attitude because I won’t give up a paying job for volunteer work? Bite me. Left a very sour taste in my mouth.
Nice to know that I share a mailing list with Zsofia ! And Docs w/o Borders doesn’t inundate you with stuff, really.
IMO, that chicky-poo put her foot right in it. The only excuse for missing would be illness or family crisis of some sort. And I agree, she shot herself in the foot with the non-attendance. The spelling errors lead me to look askance at the scholarship committee, and her.
:rolleyes:
The chair–put it out, someone will take it, trust me!
This is exactly right. I work for a university, and our department has been fortunate enough to have some wealthy and powerful people who have given money for scholarships for our students and who help them in other ways as well, with job leads, recommendations, mentoring and the like. Stuff that not only helps students with the cost of their education, but can postively affect the rest of their lives.
Every year the faculty decides who the scholarships will be awarded to, and then there is a reception at which they are formally awarded. If the donor wishes, he or she can be present and meet the recipient. Everyone is there - the faculty, the staff, the other students. For someone to just not show up would be unthinkable here. I can’t imagine it. The faculty would be furious. For someone to snub a donor that way just isn’t done.
Most of the charities I give to either don’t call/write at all(local charities and orphanages without mass mailing resources as often as not) or they hound me incessantly with requests for blood(literally!).
The most frustrating part of charitable giving for me is that it often seems to trigger a wave of new solicitations (for countless special campaigns and monthly drives) long before I ever get any acknowledgement of the original gift.
I made a number of fairly sizable donations a few months ago, and only one organization – the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – has sent an acknowledgement. (They called to thank me, offered to give me a tour of the facilities, and sent a very nice thank-you letter.)
Of the four others, three have already asked for money several more times without mentioning the first gift, and the only acknowledgement I got from the fourth was a letter saying “We appreciate your past generosity and hope you’ll help us in this new campaign…”. I know they all got the money, since I did it by credit card. Is it so hard to at least say “thank you” before holding out their hands again? Grrrrrrr…
Anyone but me considering the possibility that the recipient had a good excuse to miss the reception? Medical stuff? Family emergency? Had to work at the last minute? (I doubt the scholarship would cover living expenses…)
She left a message that she was sick, but I was a bit skeptical of that because the people running the reception had to track her down on her cell phone an hour after the reception started to find out this info.
Nobody picked up my chair. People keep parking in front of it.
Heheh - now then he’d have endowed a whole chair at the University too. Hmm, yes. Yeah, send it to the kid, postage unpaid, as a opportunity in creative approaches to problem-solving. 