You may have heard in the media recently about a Kickstarter campaign
recently to make Potato Salad. For those of you who aren't familiar
with Kickstarter, it is a crowd-funding site geared towards raising
funds for creative projects. For instance I could say that I want to
make a documentary about what it's like to raise Noah, make my
Kickstarter with a hypothetical goal of $100,000 to produce it and sit
and wait for people to throw a donation towards my creative idea with
the hopes I meet my hopeful financial goal. Along the way I can offer
incentives for your donation. I'll give you a pin with Noah's picture
on it if you donate $10, and if you donate $1,000 I'll give you an
autographed copy of my video signed by Noah himself.... that kind of
thing.
While I'm sure there are some great inventions and ideas
just floating out there in cyberspace, this idea that the Potato Salad
Campaign was listed at $71,000 (now adjusted back to $42,000) towards a
raised hopeful goal of $10 is starting to stir up some valid feelings
for special needs families that are often primarily dependent upon
donations and fundraising methods to cover uninsured therapy, medical,
equipment, home modification and handicapped accessible vehicle costs.
While many special needs fundraisers find some success, others might
find a handful of help, and some other fundraisers go unnoticed thereby
being completely unsuccessful. But rarely if ever will you find a
special needs fundraiser that even gets close to $42,000 and currently
growing in success at this very moment.
As a collective society,
we're totally messed up. Clearly if you stack any medically fragile
child up against making potato salad and potato salad wins, we have a
big problem. People would rather contribute to the idea of someone
wanting to make potato salad than putting hard earned dollars towards
making a difference in someone else's life. You think it would be an
easy decision to make. Contribute to an absurd online fundraiser or do
something life changing. And at the end of the day you can say what? I
gave money to some dude on the internet to make potato salad? Or do
you want to wake up in the morning and say you know what I gave some
help towards a child in need.
I've heard the argument lots of
times before. Who do I really know that I'm donating to needs it? What
about fake fundraisers with children that don't really need it. Maybe
there are a few scams out there, but I can tell you living this life
that most all of the pleas for help that you see are very real and very
valid. If you are willing to throw money at potato salad then it
shouldn't matter to you if you happen gamble on a special needs
fundraiser and not personally knowing the child or family in which you
are donating to.
The internet is full of buzz...
"You're helping this guy live his dreams"
"He's funny and charming"
"He promised us all a pizza party!"
"He's a hero"
So
that's what we're missing when we ask for people to make precious
donations towards something our children need that we can't otherwise
obtain without generous and loving donations? Last time I checked all
of our little special needs children were heroes. You are most
certainly helping these children live their dreams. Our children are
both funny and charming and bonus come with a multitude of other amazing
characteristics. And I'll promise anyone a pizza party if you help my
child with special needs.
So why potato salad? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/324283889/potato-salad
Noah's Fundrazr started 6 months ago, continues to sit at zero donated dollars http://fnd.us/c/af9P5/sh/5Djae
Love,
Noah's Miracle by Stacy Warden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.