Co-Worker's Kid's Schools and their fundraising rip-offs!

I got ripped off! This is the result of a co-worker remorselessly selling me crap for their kids school fundraiser. I paid $8.00 for this jar of chocolate covered raisins out of guilt. Look at the size of it! It's not much bigger than a dixie cup!



The trend of these fundraisers throughout my lifetime has gone severely downhill. I'm sure when I was a little tyke growing up in Sag Harbor, and went around pestering my neighbors to buy similar crap to this, they were feeling some tinge of what I am now. But this is just absurd. I remember the stuff I sold being of at least a minimal amount of higher quality, or at least slightly more in proportion for less money. Even girl scout cookies etc that were sold to my family by other kids in the neighborhood were more plentiful.

Don't get me wrong, because I know adding money into the education system is a great thing, but at what cost? What kind of values do kids get out of this? Here's my situation currently. A mother whom works in my office, brings in her child's pamphlets of crap, walks over to my desk and goes "This if for my son, this is for my son", slaps it down in front of me and walks away before I can say or do anything. Ok, what the hell, I'll take  a look and see if I can help the little guy out. So I flip page by page of what can only be compared to a full sized magazine, all filled with junk. All junk. Cheap wrapping paper in one section that comes with a 3' x 3' piece for 15 dollars, poorly crafted candles on another that most likely won't burn right, if at all, in another. The safe bet when you see these things is always the candy section. There's at least soemthing there you can buy like one of, and not spend a fortune. Or so I thought!



Chocolate covered raisins were literally the cheapest thing in the whole book at $8.00. So that's what I opt for. I fill out the form, and bring it back to her. It seems the intention was for me to give it to the guy working next to me when I'm done, but since your kid isn't learning any values since you are doing the selling for them, I'll teach you some values... "Get up off your fat lazy ass and do this yourself. Not my job."

I leave this off confused as I am not sure if I'm supposed to pay now, or later or what, and since i was given no more information than "This is for my son." repeatedly trailing off as she walked away, and now is gabbing away on the phone, looks like I'm not paying now.

Time goes by. It's probably been at least a month, and I have long since forgotten about it.

"Peter, you owe me eight dollars!", was how it came to be this very morning when a tiny little jar was plopped down on my desk, and and I was awoken from my half sleeping stupor at my desk while checking the morning SPAM mail. "Ok, give me a second" I say as I start taking my wallet out, now cognizant of what's going on. But as I count out the $5 dollar bill and 3 singles, I turn to find no one there. Apparently I need to get up and go over there and drop this off now. I do so without complaint, as I'm not as lazy by a long shot, but begrudgingly so, as I just said give me a second and started taking the money out in front of her eyes while she was still standing there.



So now I have had to spoon out my hard earned $8 dollars, though it be a paltry sum, nonetheless given with hopes of a good cause, and meanwhile done in a rude manner that I certainly didn't deserve. And the little shit it benefits will never know my name or see my face, and I won't be thanked, and the principal at the school will go buy some more blow to do to deal with the fact he has to put up with this type of shit all day, every day, from hundreds of times more kids and their absurdly rude parents.

I should mention I bought from another co-worker for the same idea a few days after I bought from this one. He was much more polite, put no pressure on me, and I spent more money with him. I am still gonna be pissed if what I get is something that could easily fit in a toilet paper tube. But at least the transaction there was more classy and I feel better about it.

When it comes time for my kids, I'm going to hand them $200 bucks to take in, and sit down with them and teach them soemthing. "Son/Daughter, this $200 represents respect. It means I didn't bother my co-workers and guilt them into buying some useless cheaply made junk. It means I care about your education, and I am taking my hard earned money, which I actually did something useful to earn, and am now donating it to your education. Learn from this that you do not need to rip off other people to get ahead in this life and to treat them like human beings instead of dollar signs. And learn that there is such a thing as self-respect and dignity, and it feels better having those than whatever plastic prize you might get for selling more crap than little Timmy."

I bet these raisins taste like shit.

Update: They do.