Special Stories- Special stories of generosity
In the second half of my book I talk about how celebrities I reached out to wanted tens of thousands of dollars to briefly appear at charity events I had conceived and organized benefiting individuals with disabilities, and how I was both shocked and disappointed with their level of greed.
Below are stories that illustrate the generous nature of non-celebrity, everyday folk.
STORY 1. When I had been green-lighted to organize my first fundraiser benefiting my former nonprofit employer—the one which featured former UFC world champion Jens Pulver as headliner—I reached out to an old high school friend of mine named Ryan (not his real name). Like me, Ryan’s a mixed martial arts fan. So I mailed him a letter asking him if he’d purchase two tickets to attend the event to support the cause. As a reward, he’d get to meet the UFC fighters, see some old friends, and enjoy a live band.
Instead of sending a check for $40 for the price of two tickets, Ryan sent a check for $150. As you can imagine, I was thrilled. Out went a thank you call, a thank you note, and eight tickets for him, his wife, and others of his choosing to attend.
A week later, I received a call from Ryan who reported that he’d collected a few more checks from his friends to give me. I let him know he didn’t have to do that, but thanked him. A few days later, I received an additional $300 from Ryan’s parents. I called his parents and thanked them for their kindness and generosity.
A few days later, I received a call from Ryan saying that he had collected some more checks from his work colleagues, one in the amount of $1,000. I was blown away and again thanked Ryan, letting him know how deeply I appreciated his efforts.
A week after that, Ryan called to let me know that he had some more checks.
A few days after that, Ryan called again, saying he had another check.
The same with the week after that.
And the week after that, too.
Mind you—I never asked Ryan to solicit a single penny on my behalf for the charity event I was organizing and promoting. I only asked him if he would support the cause by purchasing two tickets—one for himself and one for his wife—to attend. Nevertheless, over the ensuing weeks checks kept rolling in because of Ryan’s unbelievably generous acts.
When all was said and done, Ryan’s prodigious singular efforts were responsible for engaging over twenty donors to contribute a total of $3,250.
Incredible!
STORY 2. After having left my nonprofit employer and having founded my own nonprofit company in another state, I worked tirelessly around the clock building up the business—researching and writing grants, writing press releases for inclusion in local papers, reaching out to and meeting with various school district officials, establishing rapport with online cyber schools, fielding calls from parents, developing marketing materials, creating a website, and more. In the blink of an eye, it was nearing the end of the year. In December, I retrieved from my mailbox a UPS envelope I needed to sign for.
Curious, I opened it and out fell to the floor several checks and $20 bills. I quickly looked around and scrambled to pick them up, and then read the letter. It was from a local businessman who claimed that every year his office takes up a collection and votes on which local nonprofit company to donate it to. He had read about my company in the hometown paper, and my business was this year’s recipient. Over five hundred dollars was gifted to my nonprofit.
Moved by the caring of strangers, I called up the business owner and endlessly thanked him for his team’s kind and thoughtful act. As the giver, he seemed about as happy to supply it as I was to receive it.
Acts of kindness such as this always affirm my faith in humanity.
STORY 3. My nonprofit’s second year in business, I created a fundraiser benefiting my nonprofit company. This event featured a popular local TV morning show personality and a VH-1 award-winning dance cover band.
During the solicitation phase, I was once again showered with kindness from strangers.
As you can imagine, raising money is an unenviable task, as is asking community businesses to donate products or services to be used as raffle prizes. As important as this event was to me, I realized that I’m just one of many who have great causes and are looking for contributions to help support that cause. Despite other worthy nonprofits competing for handouts, my company had graciously been granted numerous raffle prizes to help generate raffle ticket sales the night of the event.
The 4-star Bentley Hotel in New York City and the boutique Independent Hotel in Philadelphia each donated stays at their fine hotels. Walmart donated hundreds of dollars of gift cards. The Regal Cinema donated blocks of tickets. Local restaurants, shops, and boutiques all pitched in with gift $50 certificates, as well. The list goes on. Several friends and family were also quite generous contributors, as they had been for the previous events I’d organized. They donated their time, money, services, and various gifts to be used as raffle prizes.
We sometimes hear about the greed of people—including multimillionaire celebrity actors with net worths of fifty and a hundred million dollars, yet who all wanted $40,000 or $50,000 to appear briefly at a charity event to raise money and awareness for individuals with disabilities.
Well, above and below are examples of the generosity of people.
STORY 4. I was blessed to have made lots of friends as a kid. Ryan, featured in one of the above stories, is just one of them. And I have been even more fortunate decades later to still call most of these guys friends.
After my wife and I returned home from a week’s vacation, I retrieved from the post office a plastic bin filled with held-mail that had accumulated over a week. I dumped the mail on the kitchen table and sorted it into two piles: Junk mail (eight inches high) and bills (two inches high). One envelope stood out from the lot because it was neither. The return address was from a childhood friend of mine I hadn’t seen in a while.
I opened the envelope and read the letter. JPB wrote that he had recently come across a mutual friend of ours who informed him that I was working with kids with challenges for a living and how I was organizing a fundraiser benefiting my newly-formed nonprofit. He said he was proud of me and asked me to accept the enclosed check as a donation. He wrote, “Hope this helps. I’m proud of ya!”
It was a check made payable to my nonprofit company for $2,500! My mouth hanging open, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. I immediately called to thank him kindly.
To read more stories about generosity or kids with disabilities or for more information on SPECIAL STORIES: Short stories on youth with disabilities and my adventures working in the disabilities field, visit www.specialstoriesbook.com.
https://www.specialstoriesbook.com//wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SSFlier.pdf
