Response to Letter of Appreciation

Already received a response to the letter I wrote in last night's post:

Dear Erica,

I want to thank you for the kind comments and appreciate you
taking valuable time out of your day to let us know how we are doing are jobs. I
want you to know I have been the store manager of this location for the last 8
months and I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with.
Here at bigg's we believe our biggest advantage over our competition is service.
I also want to let you know I am going to post this comment for our employees at
the Eastgate location to read.
If there is any way we can be assistance in the future, please do
not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely, Tommy Brink

Drops in the Bucket

When you're tuned in to philanthropic opportunities, you can be overwhelmed pretty quickly. I typically glaze over at cash registers, for instance, what with all the "would you like to give a dollar to x foundation?" questions I've been pummeled with.

But today I tried to tune back in, and was granted two small opportunities. The first was at Starbucks-- apparently my local branch is collecting donations of coffee for local firemen, police officers, etc. Kind of hard to say no to, really. Anyway, I gave 1/4 lb., for a grand total of $2.73.

Then I had the delight of visiting the BMV for new license plates. The woman who helped me ("Tanya," based on my receipt) was really nice and incredibly efficient, and when she asked if I wanted to donate a dollar to Save Our Sight, I said yes. Last night I'd explored the possibility of getting license plates that benefit something like organ donation, but they're too expensive-- $1 is really more up my alley.

(Aside: If you live in Ohio, this unofficial DMV site is really quite helpful, if ad-crazy. Much more navigable than the official site.)

Such small drops in the bucket, I know, but I'm hoping it's like voting... my part is small, but vital?

Letters of Appreciation

I'm getting frustrated because a) I feel too broke to make a difference, and b) I've been working long enough hours that I come straight home and go to sleep, and I go days without even thinking about my beloved project.

So tonight I decided to make a small stand. Two companies that I appreciate tonight are Bigg's (local grocery store) and Bic (in this instance, they make razors). So instead of letting that love go unknown, I wrote each of them letters of appreciation. That's philanthropy, isn't it? I'm posting the letters, just to have something of content on this blog, geez:

I always shop at Biggs, even though Meijer, Kroger, Walmart, Sam's Club and Aldi are usually closer to me. Last night, because I was at an attached Borders, I stopped into Kroger around 11-- everyone basically ignored me, and it was a very cold experience. Tonight, as just about midnight, I stopped in to Bigg's to pick up a few things. A dozen people were stocking the shelves, and three times I was stopped with offers of help. Once, a male employee offered me the cart he'd been using. Another man climbed down from his ladder to see if I was finding everything. A female employee moved from her step-stool so I could see what I was looking for. These were all within about ten-fifteen minutes, total. This is the kind of thing that keeps me going to Biggs, at all hours of the night, at all times of the week. I want you to know that the employees at the Eastgate branch are friendly and helpful-- not just in this instance, but especially tonight. Thank you.

And the Bic letter:

Last week, Soleil was out of stock at my grocery store. Bummed, I picked up an equivalent disposable razor-- what's the difference? After using ONE of the razors ONE time, I drove out to another grocery store and found the Soleil. I will never take this product for granted again. Soleil is awesome, and if you care about your consumers at all, you will make sure that their local supermarkets are never, ever out of stock. Thank you. P.S. Thank you for the 2 bonus razors in this package. They didn't go unnoticed.

You know what's sad? Besides, maybe, my desire to write letters like this? Corporate sites rarely have a "sing our praises" section. One typically has to go through the questions/concerns/complaints form in order to compliment a company. I know it might seem tacky, but still... have some confidence.

Here, have some pants!

Alright, some stuff's going down.

First off, Bradley and I became members of our church on Sunday! Maybe that doesn't strike you as relevant, but it's part of this project. Now comes the donation of time, talent and treasure to my beloved Heritage UU Church.

And today, I gave away some pants! There's some back story, so bear with me.

In early February, there's a big advertising party and the theme is Party in Your Pants. (Yeah yeah yeah.) Most people from my agency are going, and crazy pants are required. This weekend I went to the Salvation Army to find my crazy pants (mission accomplished), and I found another pair of pants that were too crazy to be ignored, but they weren't even close to fitting me.

Well I bought them anyway, and today I found a coworker who I thought might be able to fit into the pants. (They were too small for me, so it wasn't insulting to her, haha...) She tried them on and voila, a match made in heaven. She's excited to have crazy pants (I'll take pictures at the party... for now I'll just say there are fish involved), I'm happy that the pants have a home. Score one for the YoP!

Also, just shopping at the Salvation Army counts, in my opinion. Patronizing thrift stores is something I already love to do, but I'm counting it as philanthropy also, what with it being a good cause and all. (Although lately I've been hearing bad things about the SA-- are they really anti-gay? Maybe I'll Goodwill it up next time.)

Oh! And! WVXU (my NPR member station) is having its fund drive right now. I'm way too strapped to donate much, but in exploring their site I found a form where they can contact me for volunteer opportunities (answering phones, data entry, etc) for their next pledge drive. That would be really fantastic... I hope I can work it into my schedule when it rolls around again! (And it feels like these things are every other week, sooooo...)

Shoutout

This is a quick shout-out to my little brother Ryan, who gave blood today! His donation didn't have anything to do with my project but he is still the Hero of the Day!

Why shy?

A thought I wanted to share:

Sometimes philanthropy can be embarrassing, and I'm not really sure why. For example, earlier this week I bought some soup for a homeless man-- same guy as before. When I reached the place where he was sitting, there were some people headed my way, and I waited for them to pass before handing the soup to the guy.

Why? What sense does that make?

I guess I just wish my first reaction was "if people see me do this, maybe they'll be inspired to help, too." But that wasn't the case... it seemed almost shameful.

Has anyone else ever felt this way?

Dry spell

I'm in a rut... already!

That's not really the case. I have a million ideas for things that I want to do during this year, but I lack the time and money to do many of them right now.

Again, not entirely true. I know that if I tried a little harder I could be making time for things like volunteering, and even going through my closet to find some items for the Salvation Army. But it's a very, very busy time at work... I typically get home, eat some dinner and hit the sack again. My weeks are very self-centered: how am I going to get all this work done? Am I spending enough time with project x versus project y? When is Erica time?

I tried a small gesture yesterday at work, but I feel like talking about it would cheapen it (and it was no big deal anyway). I definitely think about this project every single day, but I feel like at this point I only act on it when it's convenient.

I need a shakeup! Any ideas?

P.S. Tomorrow is Sunday, which means another huge box of paper to recycle at work. Dad says we don't even use a full roll of paper towels in a week now. We have a huge bag of cans to recycle, as soon as we find the facilities. At least something's getting done...