My Neighbor

So here's the latest drama and I'll try to keep this brief.  We have a neighbor, who has a schizophrenic son, and the son believes our girls are 'ours' -his and mine- and that I'm living with another man.

Things have escalated in the last couple weeks and his condition has become more and more unstable and unpredictable over the last few months.  Consequently, we have come to realize we must move out of the home that we love and adore, and had hoped to someday own, just 3 weeks after the owner asked us if we'd like to buy it in 2 or 3 years, and not long after we renewed our lease for another 2 years. That's the short of it.

We can't even remain in the same school zone (that we had meticulously chosen), nor the neighboring zone, as the police have cautioned that the neighbor's son could find us all too easily. We'll have to move to an entirely different area now - - and our current home, we only live about 6-7 blocks away from the angel boy-O's mom, so that arrangement will be lost as well.

If anything were to ever happen, we would never be able to forgive ourselves, so we have to move and change everything. I am utterly heartbroken.

Fundraising is Something I Do

So, um, my latest enthusiasm has involved Girl Scout Cookie sales on behalf of my brand new Girl Scout Daisy, my 5 years and three-quarters-old daughter, and her very new GS Troop (just created this past month).

Since the 29th of January, I posted on Facebook several times (much of it on my own, some of it by Juli-Bean's asking), we called several friends and family (about a dozen, and only those Juliette named on her own), I sent some individual texts and FB messages to certain people (not a ton, but again, only those who Juliette had named on her own), and my daughter went to my work for an afternoon with me and she give her sales pitch in person to over 90 people, and the day after that, we set up a GS Cookie Booth at my work for about 3 hours last Friday afternoon. She -we- sold over 650 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. Her goal was 500 boxes.

Well, what can I say? I've been uber eager to help my new little Daisy and the girls of her new GS Troop be well prepared for the next season, able to participate and learn and grow without any financial issues that could prevent any of the girls from being able to do all that they want to do as a troop next year.

Indeed, G.S. Cookie Sales are meant to Support the Girls.

I've recently come to the realization though that fundraising is not something that everyone does. And not everyone is comfortable with being asked to give or spend money on behalf of something, no matter what it is.

Fundraising is something I've done a lot of in the past... Girl Scouts, Junior Achievement, for H.S. Concert Choir state trips, Susan G. Komen, the American Cancer Society, the angel boy-O's old elementary school, and the MS Society - -  and aggressively so, some more than others.

My fundraising style is based on 3 primary things:

1. A desire to make a difference.
2. A clear understanding that you cannot -and will not- get what you don't ask for.
3. I know that people sometimes fully intend to give their support, but they simply forget. Consequently, I offer / provide multiple reminders with those very people in mind, to help them not forget... 

My asking more than once, I do not mean for this to harass, irritate or pester anyone - I mean only to encourage the giving of an answer, if I haven't yet been given a final answer, and to remind those who've said yes, but haven't yet finalized a commitment.

For those who do not want to participate or cannot give, or whatever, I do understand that my persistent efforts to encourage and to remind can be misconstrued as irritating and persistent harassment. I honestly had forgotten about this possibility until it was recently brought to my attention... 

Please, please understand, I'm only trying to enthusiastically encourage the ease of supporting our efforts in order for us to achieve our set goals, as we cannot experience success without support. By no means does anyone have to participate, even when asked to. There is no expectation of support - - just a hopeful hope.

Of course, I'd be lying if I didn't admit it's a bummer when you believe what you're trying to do is worthy of support and you believe your goal is attainable, and you ask for help, and don't receive the support you seek, Nonetheless, no one should feel guilty for not supporting a fundraiser. I certainly do not want our efforts to provoke anyone to feel badly for any reason.

Just the same, please understand that we're just excited, hopeful and eager to achieve something good... like yummy cookie sales to support the Girl Scouts of Utah! Big grin and a wink.