A Christmas Gift to a DU Friend.....

[catnhatnh]

...Saw a post here earlier today from an old friend "Husb2Sparkly" whose posts I have always enjoyed, about his sorrow for the needs of so many being unmet during the Christmas season.So for him,and my DU compatriots, here is how I chose to give this year.
Last month, the Nascar racing season ended.All of us have our secret guilty pleasures and following Nascar is one of mine.Now by "following Nascar" I don't mean just sitting and watching a half dozen events on tv-I go to at least one race a year,watch every event from Daytona thru Homestead, and in general live and breathe this shit nine months a year. My family all does and my brother and I run a ten member pool betting on outcomes.We award weekly (cash) prizes along with keeping running totals of points scored and awarding quarterly, half, and final prizes. At the end of the year, leftover funds normally pay for a picnic type meal (though indoor-November in NH) and small gifts for all participants. This year though, was to be our last-a new business venture next year precluded a 2007 pool. We decided to close on a warm note. Using the predictions from our pool members (weighting them by prior wins) we also managed as a whole to win top prize in a pool at the local sports bar.Taking the funds from that win and the closing of the pool we met with the managers of our favorite supermarket (De Moulas Market Basket) the day after Thanksgiving and after a bit of sweet talk they agreed to sell us a few turkeys at the Thanksgiving week sale price (.59lb) and to store them to be distributed to charities Christmas week-Did I say a few??? Oh yeah, about 400 lbs-30 birds for those less fortunate.Am currently in contact with a local food pantry that is torn between how many to cook and how many to give away and a children's home that will be serving a couple.
So anyhow,the point...sorrow has it's place this year,but so does joy my grease-painted friend. We give where we can and when we can,in whatever way we can and work meanwhile to improve our government's attitude to the poor. It ain't O Henry, but it ain't bad...Merry Christmas, my Friend.


PS:I made a small donation in your name to one of the posts you linked-will try to do the same for the other when the recipient is named.

[leftofthedial]

1. say what you will about NASCAR

at least they always turn left.


great job, catnhatnh!

[NMDemDist2]

2. K&N

that's super and how it's done cat

:yourock:

[sui generis]

3. SO and I brought in 30 turkeys in Dallas

for Thanksgiving with some contributions from our local rugby team members and sweet talking the grocery store managers. Plus 30 dozen eggs, bags of flour, sugar, stuffing mix, gallons of milk, and pounds of butter. It's an annual event, and we keep getting more and more people to join in for Thanksgiving and Christmas who normally would just forget.

Yee haw! Plus, do it whenever you think of it. Seasons are great but they need staples (and cash) all year round.

NASCAR, eh. Full contact kickboxing, bone busting, boot scootin', plus nine-ball, cutthroat, and double blind niello spades more our speed.

:rofl:

[ceile]

4. You and your friends get one of these...

:hug:
and one of these
:yourock:

[brook]

5. Beautiful, cat.

We've had a couple of good threads today to serve as reminders that Tis the Season.

It doesn't matter how much one can give or do. What is 'small' to the giver is often quite large to the recipient - so I urge everyone to find their own one kind act of the heart. Remember! We wanna hang onto that title "Bleeding Heart Democrats"!!! :loveya:

[MADem]

6. How wonderful of you, and I agree that Demoula's/MB is a great store

We recently got some horrible news about the son of a long time family friend, who has been diagnosed with an incurable, terminal disease, so we're going to tone down the holidays and send most of our Xmas/spare dough to them--the bills are approaching a hundred grand, the insurance won't pay for most of it, and there's no switching HMOs when one has a pre-existing condition.

It's funny how you don't always think about how lucky you are, until you see what other folks are facing, and worse when it's totally out of the blue.

That was a VERY good thing you did...you'll make quite a few families happy!

Here's a food charity I happen to like, and as you might guess, old Conan was the one who drew my attention to it! http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/09/28/wearing_harsh_labels_stares_hunger_in_the_face/

[SeattleGirl]

7. Kudos to you and your friends, cat!

NASCAR fans (and I'm one too) can also be bleedin' heart liberals!

:yourock:

[catnhatnh]

8. Thanks to all that replied....

...but this is not about me,rather it is about the act of giving.The little I did with money I did not earn will in fact help a few,but my act was merely not to profit.I give when I can and what I can but mostly it is nickles and dimes in a basket of need.And I think all of us do this,each and every of our many members.The story was to raise a fellow posters sorrow and to point out our ability to aid.Never mistake this for "mission accomplished"-rather this is an ongoing part of mission undone-Merry Christmas