Shaking The Hand That Feeds You

Now that I have crossed over to the world of working outside my home again, the posts might not be as frequent.  At least not during the adjustment period.

It's been crazy to wrap my mind around.  One day, I suddenly am getting pulled into brainstorming meetings and writing newspaper ads and grants and designing posters and planning classes and wearing high heels all day.  It sounds a little glamorous.

Who out there works for/has worked for a non-profit?  You know what it's all about then.  All that (minus the class prep) is a fancy front for

begging.

For a noble cause.  A wonderful cause.  But really, it's all professional begging. I'm a professional beggar.

In many ways, this is a dream job.  I have always wanted to work for a non-profit that works to end poverty in the community.  I am really not a poster child capitalist.  I can't believe I just put that in print.  But, props to the people who make a lot of money and are super duper generous with it.

I have personally been touched by the generous giving of the uber-rich this week, and I mean, outside the job.  If you don't know, my oldest daughter is a rather good violinist.  Last year she played for the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra, which is comprised of youth from all over the region who had to audition for a spot on this elite musical ensemble, a subsidiary of the Syracuse Symphony.  The Symphony went bankrupt, and the kids had no orchestra.  The community was having none of that.  The professional musicians sadly still have no orchestra to employ them in Syracuse, but the kids were rescued by the board at Syracuse University, and other private donors. So my daughter gets to continue becoming a better musician, in the company of other amazing youth musicians. (If you click on watch  video - my kiddo is in the back row, just above the conductor's head).

My daughter also ran track last season.  Track is a modified sport (people who aren't in NY might not know  what I'm talking about).  Because of hard economic times, the modified sports program in our district was going to be cut.

A nice older lady thought this was terrible.  She lives in our district and raised a group of boys who played sports and thought something should be done for the kids.  She sent her son a newspaper clipping.  Her son, who happens to be Alec Baldwin, contacted the fundraisers and said that if we could come up with $50,000, he would donate the last $25,000 needed to keep the program going. I'm not making this up.

The kids have their modified sports program again.

It is really nice when people work for very little money to work for good causes.  But it is also really nice when people give big sums of money to those good causes and help them keep going.  Because sometimes, whether we like to admit it or not, money is what keeps our non-profits, those that benefit other people and those that benefit our own families, up and running.

Tashmica always says this, but often times people's generosity is amazing.  Today I approached a guy who I was told had access to free movie passes, something I needed for an incentive program for our clients.  I was  a little nervous, but the man said, "How many do you need?"  Just like that.  I didn't even know what to say.  I didn't think I had a proverbial blank check.  I hadn't even planned for that.  I assumed I was going to have to grovel.

Sometimes when you focus on change, it is easy to demonize things like big business. I just thought I needed to say thank you to all of the business owners who care about their communities enough to fund the great things going on in them.