Sorry for the long title but a friend just hit me for money cause she's participating in the Marathon for Breast Cancer or something like that. In this case, I gladly gave, because she's my friend and the cause is good.
But I remember when I first arrived in Montreal from Asia via Europe, two continents where the concept of walkathon, danceathon, whateverathon is completely unknown (at least at the time).
Practically every other week, a little boy or a little girl would ring my doorbell, and when I answered, asked me for money for some school project. I was supposed to sign on his/her sponsorship pledge list whereby, in exchange for my 5 bucks, he/she would eat a pie or skip rope or ride a bike, etc. for a certain period of time... In other words, he/she would do whatever fun stuff he/she was going to do anyway, but because it's a charity drive, it's considered to be a great sacrifice he/she is doing for the school project, so I have to pay him/her to make it worthwhile. And the more I pay, the longer he/she will do that fun stuff.
Did I describe the something-or-other-athon properly and correctly? Now, can someone explain the whole nonsense to me?
2 comments:
I believe it is how certain people alleviate their guilt for not taking a larger part in curing society's problems.
Thank you Bob for posting. Actually, what I don't understand is: why not just ask people to donate? Why go through the whole pretense of doing some physical activity in exchange? As a donor, I'd rather just get a receipt for tax purpose. How does the fact that someone will walk a long distance for my donation benefit me in any way, or entice me to give money if I don't already have the intention of making a donation?
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