13 December 2007

Top ten
Crazy ways to give money to charity

 

By David Grossman

1. Stuck on the Desert Bus
Imagine playing the worst video game of all time. That game is Desert Bus, where all you do is drive a bus for eight hours straight. Since pausing is not allowed, the player must sit and pay attention to an unchanging screen for eight hours (the bus naturally veers to the right, so no taping the button down and leaving). This didn’t however, hinder four friends from playing- for charity of course. The boys raised $22,805 which they promptly gave to Child’s Play, a US charity which donates toys and games to children’s hospitals.

2. The Curious Tales of Beedle the Bard
Artists often offer their services to charities, but few have made the effort author J.K. Rowling did - she wrote a new book, only to offer it exclusively in an auction for charity. The short book, called The Curious Tales of Beedle the Bard, plays a crucial role in the seventh Harry Potter book. Unlike Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which sold over twenty million copies, Rowling only made seven copies of Beedle, each of them handwritten. On December 13, Sotheby’s will auction the seven books off with all proceeds going towards The Children’s Voice, which helps disadvantaged children in eastern Europe.

3. Big, celebrity payouts
Sometimes charitable donations catch our eye just because of their sheer size. Take American media mogul Ted Turner’s $1 billion donation to the UN Foundation, for example. At the time, Turner was quoted as saying, “I figure its only nine months' earnings, who cares?” Wow.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to Wall Street wizard Warren Buffet. He’s sworn to give away the entirety of his fortune to charity before he dies. He got off to a good start when he gave approximately $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which improves healthcare, reduces extreme poverty, and improves technological access in the classroom. That almost makes the $6.7 billion he gave to the Buffet Foundation, which provides university scholarships, look like spare change.

4. Led Zeppelin reuniting
Getting the band back together seems like it’s the big thing now. Everyone from The Police to the Sex Pistols to The Eagles has talked about regrouping and charging high prices for their reunion. At first glance it would seem Led Zeppelin, or at least Led Zeppelin’s surviving members, are doing the exact same thing. However, on closer inspection a big difference appears - Zep is getting back together for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which provides students from the U.S, U.K and Turkey with annual university scholarships. Quickly becoming the hottest ticket in the world, the Zep reunion will undoubtedly do a world of good for students worldwide.

5. Riding the world’s fastest sofa
One popular charity stunt is to make sure that you set a world record - it both forces the media to report on your charity and usually allows for a good bit of insanity.  A perfect example comes in the form of Marek Turowsk from London, who satisfied his need for speed on a white sofa rigged up with a steering wheel and engine. Turowsk was able to reach 92 mph on his high speed sofa (in Leicestershire, no less), which was built by the previous record-holder. He earned the right to drive the remarkable machine (which looks like a sofa with a desk in front of it) through a charity auction whose proceeds went to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths.

6. Walk a mile in her shoes
Runs and walks are great ways to raise money for a cause, but Walk a Mile in Her Shoes does it with a twist - to raise money for victims of sexual abuse, men don high heels for a race. Actually, it isn’t so much a race as it is grown men wincing, but the event, based out of Los Angeles, has become so successful that twenty-five walks have been planned for 2008. This and the Santa Run are without a doubt the funniest races in charity history.

7. Star in a team's photo
Imagine being able to sit in on your favourite sport’s club yearbook photo. That’s what the Vancouver Canuks of the National Hockey League are offering their fans, through an online auction. The proceeds will go to benefit local children’s hospitals. While the auction is not yet over, the bidding has already gone over $1,500.

8. Performing all of Beethoven's sonatas in one day
They say music has the ability to raise the spirits. Apparently, it has the ability to raise lots of money for charity, as pianist Julian Jacobson proved October 2003 when he played all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas in one day. Taking over 13 hours to play, Jacobson gave his hands only three half-hour breaks, but it was well worth it - Jacobsen raised money for WaterAid, a charity which provides clean and healthy water to poor people around the globe.

9. MPs getting “arrested”
Let’s say you’re a MP from Kent, Maidstone and the Weald specifically. You want to raise money and awareness for Guide Dogs for the Blind. What better way than to fake your own arrest outside Parliament, complete with olde-worlde uniform, and then appeal to your constituents for bail money to get you out? Well, before you answer 'There are many better ways to do this', just know that Ann Widdecombe raised £35,000 doing this. And all it cost was dignity.

10. Cooking with a kid
At first, holding a fancy, expensive dinner for charity seems pretty boring. But this story gets far more interesting when you realise who was doing the cooking- Jack Witherspoon, a 7 year old who learned to cook while undergoing leukaemia treatment. Cooking with chefs more than five times his age, Jack was helping prepare a four-course meal which included eggplant parmesan, stuffed spinach and rib-eyed steak.  And the night did more than let a budding chef fulfil a dream - it also raised more than $22,500 for Cancer Centre which treated him.

David interned with NPC. He is a US student,
studying Political Science at American University in Washington D.C

Return to main news page