Once again, Lee Cataluna nails a local peeve that I've always wanted to rant about, but never would've been able to express quite as well as she does. Roadside fundraising, wherein folks crowd sidewalks and medians and make drivers nervous with outstretched nets or firefighter boots or whatnot, hoping to nab some cash during all-too-brief red lights where your sense of charity is hopefully rushed into action before your sense of skepticism or safety.
She notes that the responses she's received show almost unilateral disdain for the practice:
Heh.
She specifically cites the prevalence of this ridiculousness on the streets of Mililani, and it always backs up traffic. People holding up traffic to donate are bad enough, but their mere presence on the road jams things up.
And most of the time, there's no way to tell exactly what they're raising money for. Illegible, distant, ill-placed signs, or none at all, most of the time. I've half a mind to sit out there with my own net to earn cash for a new iPod.
I'm with Lee. Just say no. As one reader noted, "You like make money, come clean my yard!"
And for the poor drivers just trying to get where they're going with the last $5 in coins rattling in the rusty pull-out ashtray, how are they supposed to drive the gauntlet every day and hold on to their dignity and paycheck? Shame if you stopped at the light with all the people in red shirts and visors and sometimes Santa hats yelling at you to roll down your window and you, just sitting there, trying to blast your cassette tape of "Sense of Purpose" like maybe you cannot hear.
The worst is when it's for a basketball/football/baseball team for 14- to 17-year-olds and they stand there, no smile, no nothing. Just that scoop net. What? Wash some cars!
She specifically cites the prevalence of this ridiculousness on the streets of Mililani, and it always backs up traffic. People holding up traffic to donate are bad enough, but their mere presence on the road jams things up.
And most of the time, there's no way to tell exactly what they're raising money for. Illegible, distant, ill-placed signs, or none at all, most of the time. I've half a mind to sit out there with my own net to earn cash for a new iPod.
I'm with Lee. Just say no. As one reader noted, "You like make money, come clean my yard!"
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