Today, while I was enjoying my downtown Denver experience something very disappointing happened that I would like to share with all of you. This is a subject that I am very passionate about so I feel the need to share. As we were making our way down 16th Street Mall, we were stopped by a nice man working for a program that reaches out to help children in different countries. (not going to say which company) He was asking us to adopt a child and pay 85 cents a day to help them out. I think these programs are great and I strongly encourage people to donate to them. BUT... here is when everything went wrong. We told him that we, as college students, could not afford to support a child that we already had too many bills. We also told him that we do donate a lot of our time because we volunteer at a children's hospital. So... as we politely declined and ended our conversation we walked on to enjoy our shopping. About a block later we were encountered by another employee of the same company. I simply told her that we had already talked to another representative. (implying that we had already heard what she was going to tell us) This is where it gets incredibly disappointing... she replied with a very snotty "well, why didn't you sign up?" I was so appalled by her reaction and the only thing I could think of to say was that I am a college student. As soon as that came out of my mouth she once again snottily replied "so....". My reply to that was that I am a poor college student. (because I am) As I was replying I was also walking away. She had the nerve to look at me and say (snottily) "did you just say YOU'RE poor?" Yes, as a matter of fact I did.
I am 100% all for donating to charity and volunteering. However, as a student, scraping to get by on my Buffalo Wild Wing income I would rather donate my time. In my personal opinion volunteering your time is much more personal than donating a dollar or however much. (although that is great too) I want to be hands on and right in the action of making a difference. I felt that it was very rude for someone who is trying to get people to donate to treat a total stranger in that manner.
As I said, this topic is a very sensitive one for me. I am very passionate about making a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. I am going into education, specifically ESL, so that I can make a difference. I want to work with troubled youth and volunteer as much as possible. When the girl acted the way she did towards me, it was heart breaking.
I'm sorry I'm so late in replying to this, I'm Seriously behind with my blogs right now but I just had to comment on your post.
ReplyDeleteI live in a tiny city where every Saturday there is a person (often quite young) spaced every 10 metres up the whole of the middle of the high street. I don't know if you've experienced this but ours always seem to try to get your attention by saying "oh I love your coat/earrings/belt/shoes" in quite a false way. Then after they've explained what charity they work for and I explain that I give to 5 different charities a month every pay day and do quite a bit of volunteering, there's only so much you can do, your still met with a snotty reply.
Once after going past one person, and on to the next, i explained we'd already spoken to their colleague and their response was "ok then, well if you have, what's arr charity about?". Excuse me!!? Are you testing me on my honesty!?!
Sorry I've gone on but I wanted to let you know that I'll be linking this into a post I do about my favourite blog posts. I'll let you know when i finnish it but my link is www.divinedisarray.blogspot.co.uk.
Dibsie x