clovishound wrote:When I was in the Reserves, we had one of our number who was diagnosed with brain cancer and fell on hard times. We were doing a number of things to help ease his financial distress and one of the things we did was to raffle off a late 70s Firebird that had been donated by a retiring member. It was a little long in the tooth at the time, but ran well. I ended up winning it in the raffle.
I've never been a muscle car guy, or cared much for GM products, but I did seriously consider keeping this thing. It had a HUGE V-8 engine in it and was reputed to be very fast. Practicality reigned supreme and I decided to donate it back to the cause. Someone had offered a decent price on it if someone won it and didn't want it. I told them to sell it to them and give the money to our brother in trouble.
Outstanding .... Funny thing is, Miss Tina and I have been there and done that as well, but NOT quite at that level... at first.
A number of years ago, when we were founding members of an online bass fishing forum.. (we didn't start the forum, but did join in the first month..) ... we were very active. Especially Miss Tina. She moderated the Fly Tying Section and ran/judged the monthly fly tying contest, and arranged for the prizes. We both fished the monthly CPR tournaments for Bass, and the prize each month was a Kayak. Various manufactures donated a kayak each month and they would ship to local dealer locations based on the winner's location.
Miss Tina and I did very well in the competitions, and I won the first kayak. I didn't announce my actions on line, but notified the Forum Owner that I didn't want the kayak delivered to ME, but would have it delivered to SC to a new Heroes on the Water Veterans Kayak Fishing Charity that was forming. They needed kayaks and gear and Miss Tina and I had kayaks. Someone in their group placed an announcement on the site thanking us... which was NOT my intent.
Believe it or not, we got NASTY emails saying how nice it must be to have enough money to give away a $1,000 kayak. 
The kayak cost us nothing, and we already had nice kayaks. The charity needed boats and equipment to take veteran's fishing.
Where was the problem. They were REALLY upset when the following month, Tina won a kayak and we had it delivered to us, and I customized the kayak.
We added decals to represent the various organizations that donated paddles and equipment, and I bought challenge coins to represent the five branches of service and mounted them in a teak curved plate on the stern.
The company that makes the challenge coins provided them at a discount, and paid the shipping when they learned of the project, all they asked was to see a picture of the finished project. They didn't even ask for a release to use the picture.
I also went to the State Police Gift shop to purchase a VSP challenge coin to mount on the kayak, since I was still working at HQ at the time, and they donated a coin to mount on the bow.
Once the project was completed I took a week long leave, and we drove to SC and delivered it to the Charity in person. We did a little fishing, met some people we had only chatted on line with, and got away for a while. Again, the kayak cost us nothing and they were in need of kayaks for the Charity. We didn't announce the donation, and asked that it NOT be made public. Unfortunately, a few folks felt our kindness should be noted. More nasty emails flooded in.
We chose to ignore those who wrote them and carry on.
Less than a year later, we started our own chapter of the same charity, and worked hard to secure our own kayaks and equipment, holding fundraisers and charity events, and soon were taking vets out fishing ourselves. It was hard work, but very rewarding. We didn't give away a car.. but it was still a huge investment in time and money over six years.
WE wouldn't change a thing.
1965-1969 - NRA Member - Henry H004, Henry H001
