Better Idea than Soles for Souls

[Longboard]

I don't recall seeing this in the BRS forums, or did I just miss it?

http://www.medals4mettle.org/

Sounds like a better idea than the shoe donation charities/shoe manufacturer donation marketing gimmicks

 

[Bare Lee]

I dunno, but I'm starting a wheels for wheels program. I'm going to bicycle around my block in order to raise money to buy cars for everyone who's too poor to afford one.

 

[BFwillie_g]

Sounds like a better idea than the shoe donation charities/shoe manufacturer donation marketing gimmicks

I stopped donating clothes etc to the Red Cross after watching an incredibly ballsy documentary showing where the stuff goes and how many middlemen make a profit off of it en route. Disgusting. Even the poverty-stricken people you think are getting your stuff have to pay for it at huge bazaars ... there's an eyeglass franchise here that gives a few bucks for your old glasses, and then "donates" them to African charities, same gimmick.

Charity starts at home for me these days. There are plenty of poor suffering children right here who could use a little joy once in a while. I love the medal idea, and there's nothing stopping me from going up to the Children's Clinic in town and awarding them to the kids!

 

[dutchie53]

+1 with Willie on that one. It is shocking how much money bleeds off with the larger donation raising causes. I also believe in helping those who are closer to our home and in our community.

 

[Bare Lee]

Whenever we see a donation collection box for change at a restaurant or shop, my wife says they can give the money directly to her, and save the overhead costs of getting it to an African in Africa.
Be advised that if you do stop donating clothes, you will leave all the ambulant venders who resell them unemployed, and quite a few Africans unhappy that they can no longer purchase good quality textiles at low prices.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

If you donate clothes, you can take them directly to the shelters yourself, if you want to make sure they get to those they are intended to get to. We have a place close by where I live that does this. Not all of the donated stuff goes to homeless people, but like housewares and furniture will go directly to people who are rebuilding their lives after say a house fire, etc.