Charity Case

Since when did charity become a competition? While I was working today, my manager told me that we were selling these paper sneakers for Juvenile Diabetes research. Pretty much two minutes later, another cashier comes up to me and says, "How many sneakers have you sold? I've already sold four...today." Apparently there is some sort of competition going on where the cashier who sells the most sneakers gets a prize.

This is ridiculous. The point of charity is not to step on each other's throats just to win some prize. It should be about the cause. Still, even though I know this, when the kid said that to me, I decided I would step up my game and head straight for the jugular. Within about twenty minutes, I had sold three of them. I was on fire. Then, I looked over and saw that this kid had now sold almost a dozen of them. I had been beaten so bad that I stopped asking people if they wanted to buy sneakers and did not even bother trying to raise money.

That is just another reason why competition is bad for charity. Not only does it take away from the true purpose of giving to the less fortunate, but if we lose, we simply stop caring. The loser doesn't get anything except a pat on the back for doing the right thing. When you are in a contest, sympathy is the last thing you want.

Through my school, I am doing this breast cancer awareness walk, next month. We don't get anything for participating (except for maybe exercise). We don't win some fantastic award if we run faster than everyone else. We simply pay our ten dollars, get a free t-shirt, and walk. That is what I think charity should be all about...minus the free t-shirt.