The 2009 MDA Drive

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For my past two shifts I’ve been going out and helping with the annual firefighter MDA drive. You know what I’m talking about. We go out and get folks to put their spare cash and change in our fire boots under a ”Fill the Boot” banner.

Fill the boot days can be long. They come in August to be in concert with the Jerry Lewis telethon. It’s a lot of time on the street and under the sun, but I feel like every minute is worth it. Working with the fill the boot project was one of my first experiences in charitable fund raising though I have gone on to do quite a bit more now for various causes.

My experiences with the MDA fund raising encouraged me to do more charitable work. If you’ve never had the experience of going out and asking people to give in the name of a cause you believe in I recommend you try it. You’re certain to grow from the experience.

Here are some of the things I’m reminded of, standing out there in the street with that boot:

People are surprisingly generous.

I’m constantly amazed at how generous people are when we hold out that boot. It inspires me and it makes me want to be more giving myself. The first time I went out to collect for the MDA I expected maybe one person in every ten to dig in and contribute. I never imagined that over half of the people I encountered would immediately pull out their wallet and give.

I’m also surprised at how many people reach for the fives, tens and twenty’s. I make a decent living, but tens and twenty’s don’t usually fall from my wallet without a bit of thought. But some folks just reach right in and pull out those big bills. It’s just in their heart.

You can’t pick who’s going to give on any given day.

It’s true. You think you can pick out who’s a giver and who’s not but ever year I prove myself wrong. There’s just no pattern to generosity.

This might be a good time to point out that I never judge anyone for whether or not they give or how much they chose to give. The purest form of giving is anonymous and some folks just don’t give money publicly. I respect that. The person who walks by without looking at you might go home and send in a huge sum of money to this cause or another. They may feel like they don’t need to give because they dedicate their lives to charity. You don’t know and you can’t judge.

Having said that, the people who do chose to give span every race, both genders and every socio-economic group out there. Young teenagers and small children give as well as aging seniors. The woman in the spotless Lexus is just as likely to drop a twenty in the boot as the guy in the beat up Chevy Nova.

I’ve never found any patten that reliably predicts who will give and who won’t. And how much money people appear to have is probably the least reliable indicator of how much they are willing to give. Wealth and generosity have no reliable connection.

Ignore your critics.

It’s easy to say, but it’s harder to do. Some folks get down on us for asking for money. I had one dude drive by and yell, “Quit your begging!” out of his car window. Another lady stopped to explain that I was supporting stem cell research. This is, apparently, a no-no with some folks. It’s funny how one encounter like that can overwhelm your thoughts. Instead of thinking about the past two hundred people who smiled and dropped money in your boot you can’t stop thinking about that one jerk.

You really have to let that stuff go. I have a few trusted people in my life who I value for their insight and opinion. If I’m ever struggling with the right thing to do, they are the opinions that matter to me. No matter what you try to do in life, there’s always going to be someone who pops up to tell you why it’s totally wrong. Ignore them. They never really count for much in the end.

 

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