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| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Archive : Coffee with Cam Articles : Article |
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Please take a seat
By Cam Tait
January 22, 2007
What do you think would happen if a friend of yours invited 200 people for dinner? If they simply said, "C'mon for dinner. Let's just share some time and good food together." And for convenience sake, they charged everyone $50. You'd arrive at the community hall and start talking to people. There wouldn't be tables and tables of silent auction items. People wouldn't have roll and rolls of 50/50 tickets dangling from their necks, dancing around like some ancient shaman before asking if you want to buy one. Then five minutes later, they ask if they've sold you a ticket yet. Finally, just as you are about to take your seat at the dinner table, someone comes by and offers you a raffle ticket. But that won't happen at this dinner.
Instead, you take your seat. There aren't corporate logos over your placemat or tablecloth. There's no program or set agenda. A master of ceremonies? Forget it. This time you are left to your own devices. You get to know the people around the dinner table and your conversation takes you in all different directions.
Nobody is asking for your attention during the conversation, reading off names or numbers of silent auction items. There isn't an auctioneer who steps in front of the microphone, attempting to start the auction. Instead, just as the dessert is being served, your friend gets up from his table and walks toward the microphone holding a piece of paper with a few notes.
He thanks everyone for coming. He may, or may not, attempt a few jokes. And then he clears his throat and speaks more seriously.
Someone he knows needs help. It might be a spouse, a partner, a child, a sibling, or a friend. Help may be needed because of an illness, an accident, or a simple run of bad luck. But the help is needed.
Your host reaches behind him and pulls out something that has a great history, though it hasn't been around for a while. There it is: a hat.
Your host then asks you for a contribution, but only something that you can afford. The hat starts to make the journey around the dining room. People bring out their wallets. Others go through their purses to find a chequebook and start writing.
Then the pure magic of the night takes over. People start talking and wondering what else they could do to help. What if someone at the dinner had a band and thought about having a concert? What if someone owned an amusement park and could close it for a few hours to hold another fundraising event? What if two friends who meet for coffee every Tuesday morning at 10:30 at the strip mall down the street asked more people to join them? What if the ideas and the projects just kept coming?
People would trust their host to turn all the proceeds over to the person in need. A bank account could be set up. And while all these plans are being made, the hat is still collecting funds.
Folks could give what they could without being pressured or forced into buying something. They'd all know it's going toward a good cause and wouldn't have to be reminded of that.
A dinner invitation. A cause. A hat. Would anyone care to join me?
Cam Tait is a sports reporter for the Edmonton Journal. He covered charitable issues for almost 20 years. Thoughts, comments, ideas or a simple hello are welcomed at cam@charityvillage.com.
Opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CharityVillage.com®.
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