Not a QOTW, but…
I figured since I said it Wednesday, I could say it again today 🙂 Today’s blog post has been a topic of conversation at our house for quite some time. This morning, I need to vent.
School fundraisers.
Can I get a collective sigh? Hey, here’s our reality. Our children attend private school. Tuition covers about 85% or so, of the operating costs and the remaining 15% is raised through various fundraisers. I get it. I married a fund raiser. I understand that different people respond differently to the approach. And, some family’s capacities to give are greater, or less, than the average.
But, over the last two days I have gotten 25 – yes TWENTY-FIVE – emails about our upcoming event. That’s just crazy. And, to top it off, this morning, one of those emails basically said that “if we cared about the faith formation of our children” we would donate to the cause. Hello, ludicrous. To tie giving to a lack of caring about my children’s faith formation is just plain nuts. Here’s the thing.
We do give to the school, just not to this fundraiser. Everyone has their passion and ours is the annual fund, probably due to Scott’s career and our perspective. I get that some fundraisers are billed as community builders. I’m all for those. But, when our revenue isn’t much above our expenses, and the volunteer hours are in the thousands, that’s when we need to rethink how we do things. At least that’s my two cents.
Change is inevitable, in everything. When we made the change to move houses, schools and parishes last summer and add a new family member, we got a whole lotta the “c” word. It’s taking some time to adjust and I know that in time, we will feel part of our new community. That’s high on my prayer list. To be more thankful and grateful and less critical. Easy to type, hard to do. There are many things I love, love, LOVE about our new changes. And, those certainly outweigh the challenges I see.
My apologies for your usually quippy QOTW this week. It’ll be back next week. This weekend we have a fun visitor – Granny – coming to town to watch the boys play flag football, a basketball evalatuion, flu shots (I’m sure those will be a blast!) and altar server training. Yes, Will is old enough to be an altar server. Wow.
I’ll get your pumpkin patch photos up soon, along with the funny story. Until then, make it a great weekend!
Stewardship comes in multiple forms. In fact, I have heard many a homily on the importance of giving of your time, talent, AND treasure. It's too bad that some people lose sight of that and are only focused on the treasure part. I really admire folks who take on fundraising because it is certainly not my cup of tea, but I think part of doing that (and doing it well) is meeting people where they are–not cramming it down their throats. I totally get where you're coming from.
Oh, and btw, I feel like I've totally become one of your blog stalkers, so I'd like to thank you for allowing me to join the party. 🙂 Have a great weekend!