Ranting, raving gets you nowhere

Last week was my first time asking random people for help. I asked everyone in my classes, people on the strip, strangers passing by and anybody I saw in the union on a WEDNESDAY.
The Southern University chapter of Up ’til Dawn is trying to beat last years donation of $10,000 towards helping kids with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses.
This summer I became dedicated to helping raise money for what I think is a very worthy cause.
I actually visited St. Jude first hand and saw where the money we were raising was going.
I never really asked anyone for donations because I didn’t want to seem like I was begging.
Simply asking, “Would you like to make a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital?”
The donations started pouring in, students gave dollars, loose change. Even lint. I took whatever they could give me.
But of course you can never get a full bag of good apples.
I asked this one “refugee” — that is what he called himself on his shirt — for a donation.
What did I do that for? I was attacked by “You need to be picking up a donation for me. I lost everything,”
I attempted to explain why I was doing this for Up ’til Dawn, but of course he wasn’t having that.
As a victim of Hurricane Katrina myself, I think the evacuees need as much help as they can get.
When I got my jar that morning I did think, “Why am I doing this for Up ’til Dawn when Katrina is slapping me in the face?’
I thought for a minute and I remembered when I visited the hospital and I saw the three year-old girl who lost all of her hair and was still playing with her toys hooked up to her chemotherapy machine.
I knew my own selfishness about what was happening to me did not make another cause less worthy.
Yes, the victims of Katrina need help, but that doesn’t mean the people with cancer, sickle cell and AIDS don’t need my help also.
Just as Katrina has affected our black people, infectious diseases are killing them as well.
So, if it means anything to you — start a can drive, pick-up an offering, say a prayer.
All it takes is one person to start a fundraiser.
“If you don’t stand for something , you will fall for anything.”