My Favorite Charity

Originally Written Between 2017-2020                                    

 

My first recollection of <quote> “giving” is when my mom or dad would give me a dime or a quarter to place in the collection plate at my church.  I remember feeling very good about putting money in.  Of course, it wasn’t my money – it was mom and dad’s.  I don’t remember when I started placing my own money in the collection.  Since I have no memory – I’m afraid to admit that maybe I never did use my own money!

 

Remember the March of Dimes?  Every year in grade school we were given a card with little slots where you could place your dimes.  Not sure how many slots were on each card – maybe a dollar’s worth?  Anyway, I do remember using my own money to fill up my card.  I was told that all the money would go to help cute little babies who were sick.  And that seemed to be the right thing to do.

 

My first job out of high school was at 3M.  And that’s when I first learned about The United Way.  We were guaranteed that we would not get solicitation calls or mail from the charities that were involved with The United Way.  This worked well for quite a few years.  But, then the charities started calling.  I would ask if they were involved with United Way and most would say “yes.”  I didn’t like that they wanted more.  

 

But, I was involved in the United Way campaigns at Medtronic.  My boss was the Assistant Chair one year and then moved on to being the Chair of the campaign the next year.  Which meant, of course, that I was in charge because he traveled 50% of the time.  I enjoyed writing articles for the newsletter and coordinating and being involved in all the meetings with each separate department head.  And so, I continued giving to The United Way.

 

But after many years, those unsolicited phone calls kept bugging me.  When United Way no longer advertised that one could make one payment for lots of charities and not be bombarded with those same charities calling, I decided to get out of United Way and contribute to whatever charity I wanted on my own.   

 

I’ve been told that Charity begins at home.  So – again as a young’un working at 3M, I started a Christmas Club through my bank.  Each payday, I took money out of my check and deposited into my Christmas Club.  I’m really not sure what I contributed at first; but, I think I saved $1 a week which meant around $50 for the year.  I really liked doing that since it forced me to save. I continued this even after Norm and I were married – until I quit work to have our first baby.

 

We have named three Charities in our Wills.  This was Norm’s idea and he picked the charities.  I’m okay with them for now.  I haven’t really found a charity that “pops” out at me.  Can’t say I’ve really been looking either, though.  If I find one, I will just change my Will.

 

One of those charities in our Will is Feed My Starving Children.  We have been volunteering there for a few years. It’s a great cause.

 

You know that commercial for saving abandoned dogs and cats?  Those brown puppy eyes just get to me. That’s a charity that I’d like join.  If I can only stop crying to get the information at the end of the commercial, I probably will.