Friday, December 23, 2005
When Your Best Isn't Enough for Some
The other day, I heard a story that really got me mad. At my work, we're divided into teams. For Christmas, it is a tradition that each team will "adopt" a family for Christmas: Each team member will donate food, gifts, money etc. to a needy family to hopefully put some Christmas cheer for the holidays for these poor families. The generosity is never in short supply.
But I was shocked to hear one of the adopted families DIDN'T appreciate the charity. The mother complained about the food items...apparently her kids don't eat soup. No name brands aren't good enough (hey, I'm the king of purchasing Loeb's "Merit Selection" line). The toys were cheap. The mother actually got hold of the personal home phone number of the person who took the time to drive the stuff up to the family's home to complain. This same lady called the charity organizers to complain some more. Are you frickin' kidding me? Unfortunately, no.
This is the first time anything like this happened as far as I know. Every other family has been kind and grateful for being sponsored as co-ordinated by their local church or charity. This year, my team's family took the time to get a thank you card for us and all the family signed it. They can't really afford something simple as a gift card and we knew it was the only way they could thank all of us, and we all appreciated that small gesture of thanks.
You're left with a bad taste in your mouth when you give and it's not appreciated. And the bad thing is some people get fed up that they won't participate in something like this anymore.
I hope this doesn't discourage my fellow team from doing it again next year.
But I was shocked to hear one of the adopted families DIDN'T appreciate the charity. The mother complained about the food items...apparently her kids don't eat soup. No name brands aren't good enough (hey, I'm the king of purchasing Loeb's "Merit Selection" line). The toys were cheap. The mother actually got hold of the personal home phone number of the person who took the time to drive the stuff up to the family's home to complain. This same lady called the charity organizers to complain some more. Are you frickin' kidding me? Unfortunately, no.
This is the first time anything like this happened as far as I know. Every other family has been kind and grateful for being sponsored as co-ordinated by their local church or charity. This year, my team's family took the time to get a thank you card for us and all the family signed it. They can't really afford something simple as a gift card and we knew it was the only way they could thank all of us, and we all appreciated that small gesture of thanks.
You're left with a bad taste in your mouth when you give and it's not appreciated. And the bad thing is some people get fed up that they won't participate in something like this anymore.
I hope this doesn't discourage my fellow team from doing it again next year.
# posted by SBP : 2:31 PM
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