Family makes good on dying family member’s last wish: Leave $500 tip
 

Family makes good on dying family member’s last wish: Leave $500 tip


A dying man's last wish was to make someone else's day. After his death, the family of Aaron Collins fulfilled his wish to go have pizza and leave their server a $500 tip.

The story surfaced on the blog Fark: 30-year-old Collins, a computer technician who died July 7, had no money to make his wish come true. So his family raised the cash through a website http://aaroncollins.org/ after just a few days and then made good on his request. At Puccini's restaurant in Lexington, Ky., the family lunched on pizza, and then presented one very lucky waitress with $500.

The video captures the moment. As the cash is handed over, the waitress keeps asking, "Are you serious?" She then promises to share her good fortune with other restaurant staff, and says, "You know, I'm going to be telling this story for the rest of my life."

To introduce the video, Aaron's brother Seth writes, "We think he just wanted to provide a random act of kindness and generosity for someone he thought was under appreciated; the kind of thing that would make a lasting impact they would never forget." Mission very accomplished.

The website continues to accept donations, and the family plans to give away big tips every time they raise another $500, noting, "We have already received over $500 more, so we will be doing this again soon. Hopefully we can continue changing the lives of random waiters and waitresses for years."


news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/family-makes-good-dying-family-member-last-wish-183919770.html

From aaroncollins.org :

"I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for the overwhelming amount of support you have given my family. Since last night we have received over $10,000 in donations. When I started this site I only expected to receive donations from friends and family. I was hopeful that we would get enough to make my brother’s wish come true. Even in my wildest dreams, I imagined we would receive enough money to do this for 2 waiters or waitresses. What has happened is absolutely incredible.

Right now we have enough money to change the lives of 23 more people, $500 at a time. That is nothing short of amazing. Please know that absolutely every penny we receive will go toward nothing but this. We will pay to host the website. We will pay for the food. Absolutely 100% of the donations we receive will be given to random waiters or waitresses. Our goal is to do this once a week, for as long as you give us the opportunity.

The stories, comments, and notes have touched my heart. They have given my mother, father, sisters, and me strength. The way my brother’s last wish has inspired people is incredible. It is my hope that even if you can’t donate, but feel moved, you will give your own huge tip and share the story here. If you are a waiter or waitress who receives a huge tip because of Aaron’s wish, please tell us.

Again, thank you all so much for your own generosity. Thank you for allowing me to help facilitate your acts of kindness. You have amazed me."

pretty cool

It's a pretty cool story.

Can I be the asshole, though, that is just a little bit concerned about what people are donating money to these days? I don't see the point in collecting money beyond the $500 tip. You have legit nonprofit organizations that are bleeding money because donorship is down, and yet school bus monitors and random acts of tipping and George Zimmerman are collecting thousands of dollars....

I serve on a nonprofit board. I can assure you that collecting that kind of money is hard work. There are better ways to donate money than for a family to engage in random acts of kindness. St. Jude's hospital would use that money to keep the lights on in a hospital that provides free patient care to kids. The Boys and Girls Club would use it to buy new gym equipment for their kids.

Anyway, flame away. Because I know people will.

IMO the only good charity is immediate charity.

You buy a guy a sami'tch. You pay a parking fine. You give someone a quart of oil from your trunk or a jump start in a parking lot.

so, hey, can I decide what you do with your money?

....didn't think so.....:rolleyes:

With the death tax, yes...

I understand where you're coming from in terms of why this trend is happening. But it's disturbing nonetheless. It may make a bus monitor feel good to make that much money for emotional distress. But I'd say that keeping a cancer patient alive with free care provided by generous donorship is pretty impactful and immediate. The bus monitor could still be happy with a lot less money coming her way. The kid in the hospital would die if the hospital could no longer
afford her care.

You don't want to follow this argument to its end...

If you eat unhealthy and then wonder why you're fat, I'm going to call you out for eating garbage.

We saw millions of dollars get raised for The KONY campaign, and then months later people realized "holy shit, what did I just spend my money on? This might be the wrong cause." You have thousands of dollars going to the defense of George Zimmerman, a guy who gets shadier with every passing day. Now we're donating money to this family who, while probably has the best intentions, could very well be pocketing some of the money for all we know. Or what if the story came out that the bus monitor we sent money to was in fact a huge jerk?

I'm not saying "don't spend your money." I'm pointing out the obvious point that it scares the shit out of me that we're donating money in knee-jerk ways to people and organizations we know close to nothing about. And in many cases, we act surprised when they aren't who they thought they would be. And it scares the shit out of me because there are organizations that fully disclose everything they do and that provide 100 times more an impact than most of these knee-jerk donations, and they are struggling big time for money.

So again... people are free to spend money on whatever they want. But spending it in this way is just plain stupid.

By the way, to go more directly on your first example. The way you're donating your money today is like giving a sandwich to a guy who, it turns out, wasn't hungry and ends up throwing the sandwich away. Or giving a tank of gas to a guy who then drives to a motel to beat up his girlfriend.

At least with legit nonprofits, you can pretty much follow the trail of the dollar you spent. You can choose to spend based on what gratifies you. That's your prerogative. I'm saying it scares the shit out of me that people are increasingly caring less about how their dollar leads to actual impact.

speaking of donating, way back in the day like 10 years ago I worked at panera bread. They donate all of the left over bread/pastry to the homeless. It turns out to be a couple of hundred dollars worth of stuff per day that they get to write off and they do it every single day.

The thing is though, it's all thrown away every night. Nobody comes to pick it up, but they "donate" it to the trash and get hundreds of thousands of tax write offs each year for each store. But it just goes in the trash. Pretty shady if you ask me.

Look at this way - they could be wasting all that money on tithing.

What is your charity? Interested to see how you rate..

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html

Yeah - the guys brother posts on Neogaf and there's a very, very long thread over there that started the night his brother hanged himself (over a girl) -- "Seth C" is his handle.

Here's the thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=481038

edit: interesting.. no mention that it was a suicide.

Why is it shady? I've had numerous events where Panera has provided free stuff and it's saved us hundreds of dollars on food expenses. The write-off they get isn't even close to the benefit it does actually provide to people who legitimately need the bread. On the other side of the glass, I've always appreciated how helpful they have been in helping me out.

because they write it off for charity even though it just goes in the trash. I'd say once a month it was actually donated.

A lot of people are commenting on his youtube page about feeling mislead about his cause of death -- some reports have been cancer...
Why would news outlets avoid calling it what it is -- a suicide

No, it's smart and LEGAL !

Since you have the work experience at Panera's how much food is thrown away because it is actually bad as opposed to because the Fed Govt(FDA) say's so even though it is not bad? And there ya go !!

How about I start donating to cancer once we show more progress in treatment?

THIS X1000 !!!!

Precisely !! Bureaucracy to the 'hilt' ! These administrative thieving snakes always work themselves into the charity ring. The majority of the $$ never gets to the real cause because guys like 'zilla'(nothing personal 'zilla') need to make sure they get their 'administrative charity mafioso cut'.

You know like this Obamacare that is supposedly not a tax and everyone gets better care :rolleyes:and yet "We The People" had no say so in the matter on how that bill was written let alone that it is not even Constitutional as a mandate 'unless' it gets into your back pocket as a tax.:hmmm:

Not trying to hijack the thread just drawing a much bigger parallel like example of 'zilla's' idea to Obamascare and that 'IMPROMPTU" giving avoids the "Uncle Sam" or now should I say "Uncle Obama" types and how much better everyone is off apart from the Govt when "We The People" are allowed to take care of ourselves like Ben Franklin said.

Only on Chiefs planet could someone take a random act of kindness and over analyze it to the point that it became a bad thing. Seriously?

That bidge deserved it!1!:cuss:

I never said the family was wrong to do this. Good for them for picking a cause and running with it. At the same time, we know close to nothing about this family or that bus monitor. What would your reaction be if you donate $20 to this group and 10 months later, you learned that they were being dishonest about how the money was used? What if you learned that they started using this money to buy a $50 meal, and then add a $450 tip? I'm not saying they're doing it. But when we donate knee-jerk, there is absolutely a potential for it to happen.

I'm talking about people who donate to things on a knee-jerk reaction. How many people spent money on Trayvon Martin protests before news came out that he also assaulted Zimmerman. How many people spent money on Zimmerman's defense before they realized he's a liar? What about the $8M to the Invisible Children KONY group, a group that spends 70% of its expenses on administration and supports a cause that people are starting to question. And how stupid did people feel if they donated to that cause only to find out the guy they donated money to was a lunatic who masturbates in public?

So yeah, it scares the shit out of me that a lot of our money is increasingly going to causes... that often times aren't causes at all.

bus moniter!
Zimmerman!
Trayvon!

..has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you, and an increasing number in society feel complelled to save others from themselves., based on nothing more than your own biased opinion.

I hate over-regulation. But I also despise people who hang their hat on the excuse that nobody can tell us what to do. When people are stupid, I'm going to call you out for being stupid. When people eat like shit, I'm going to tell them they're eating like shit and I won't feel sorry for you if you're fat because you get defensive when somebody tells you what to do. And yes, when the way people donate money carelessly affects the services that affect me, I'll speak up about it. I have several friends who are parents of cancer patients that rely on donations to keep the hospital running. I was in the room one day when my contact at the Boys and Girls Club told me she struggled to feed the kids she was keeping off the streets because money was tightening up and I heard her heartbreak over the idea that they were hungry in her care. I've seen kids camps and after-school programs get shut down because they can't secure funding, and it absolutely crushed the kids. I've spent time planning and helping friends plan charity events where we devote hundreds of hours of our spare time to raise a few thousand dollars that goes directly to charity. I've also volunteered for Food Banks that can give you an exact number as to how many meals your dollar or volunteer hour created. I've been in budget discussions during this recession where they've talked about cutting valuable programs because they just can't afford it anymore. So yeah, I'm going to call people out when they donate to organizations on a knee-jerk reaction while quality organizations are bleeding money. You have every right to do what you want. But when you do it stupidly, I have every right to call you out on it.

Not saying this family is doing the wrong thing. But we've donated stupidly in the past year to really bad causes. So yeah, I get a little bit upset when George Zimmerman defense fund raises $55,000 or the Invisible Children fund make $8M while these organizations bleed.

Nice tip.

.......somebody burned you good.

I volunteer a lot. I have seen lots of people get burned. I have also seen stubborn people who refuse to be helped. I've seen stubborn parents who don't take care of their kids and demand that a nonprofit take care of them. Because its their right to be a shitty parent. I've seen people eat their way into diabetes because how dare someone tell them to ea a certain way. Literally seen them do this. And I have spent hours raising money and know how hard it is. I've seen enough to believe that free will has turned into, in many cases, a bullheaded excuse to not take self accountability.

Thing is, I know people donating to these causes want to do the right thing. The problem is they don't realize tha in many cases, they're not donating to what they think they're donating to. So it's not even about being free to spend however you want. It's about making sure they start spending on what they think they're spending on.

Mr Pink would not approve of this jester

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j8...ox/28t9oox.jpg

Update from Seth -- Donations are at $38,000

I'm thinking if people want to spend their hard earned money on whatever they wish, they most certainly can. What someone sees as a piss poor investment don't necessarily equate to what the giver sees it as.

Point is people have the right to spend however much they wish on what they wish and to derive whatever level of satisfaction from it as they wish. Quit talking like "we have spent" when in reality they have spent their own money.

People have the right to spend their money however they want. And I have the right to call people out for being stupid if months or years later, you find out you weren't donating to what you thought you were donating to.

I'm not saying people can't donate to these things. I'm saying the trend is disturbing. We're so hooked on immediate gratification goodwill that we're starting to devalue organizations that are more likely to make an impact.

I know you're taking some heat in this thread, but I generally agree. I wouldn't go so far as to criticize others' choices, but I'm not a fan of the $50k given to a guy with cancer for a vacation, the $400k given to the bullied bus monitor just because, or this.

It's becoming a weird phenomenon these days (reddit is one of the biggest culprits) to give exorbitant amounts of money to random people who have a touching story. While I appreciate the willingness to give, I do wish it were more focused on improving the world rather than improving the lives of a small handful of people.

Also - another issue with this stuff is that there's little to no accountability. It would be pretty easy to fake a story to get some sympathetic souls to blindly throw money at you.

No, it happens in the real world all the time for people who think critically about how to maximize the impact of their charitable giving rather than throwing it at one story that won't make any real difference in the world.

As a less-sob-story example: you'll have more of an impact if you make a large donation to one organization rather than several smaller ones to multiple organizations. That $10 you give to the Red Cross for Haiti is great, but it costs them $1 (my estimate) just to process the donation. So, if you made ten $10 donations like that, 10% of your donation is lost just to the administrative costs of dealing with so many separate transactions. If you donated $100 all at once, it'd still just cost $1, so only 1% would be lost. (This is an over-simplified example, but the principle is definitely true.)

Don't get me wrong - anything that gets people to think of how they can help others is great. But there are ways to do it that make sure you're getting more bang for your buck, so to speak, and the OP isn't it.

What is the cash overhead of your charity? How well is it managed? What 70% of cash donated goes to expenses?

People obviously want to donate. Go ****ing earn that dollar and quit bitching about how people help others. FFS I saw this shit with the March of Crimes, United Pay and other big outfits paying a multitude of bureaucratic salaries and expecting to make payroll on name ID alone. The money was never theirs to begin with. Adhering to that principle is usually a good idea in charity work.

You've convinced me, I ain't giving to shit. They are all shady.

I find the OP to be a compelling story of good will. Good for them & it's an uplifting sperit for the person that recieved the tip of $500 cash was really freaking cool.


Now on a side note: if anyone would like to donate there monies to the KC Tattoo Foundation I assure you it would go for a good cause and be greatly appreciated thank you o:-)

"Expenses" is a tricky topic. Because larger organizations are going to have more bureaucratic waste and I think people forget that these nonprofits are essentially businesses. You have to invest in your business in order to maximize its impact. I work for more local boards where expenses are typically kept lower. About 80% goes toward funding programs. That shouldn't make people believe that expenses are a bad thing for bigger organizations. People often don't get that you have to invest in marketing to get donorship, and for bigger organizations, the brand of that group is critical toward getting grassroots donations and volunteering. You have to invest in better technology and pay better salaries to better managers, because that enables you to make your organization more efficiently. The Red Cross has an insane expense and cost structure, but anyone who's ever coordinated a blood drive or a disaster relief site with them knows that they are incredibly efficient. Their expense allows them to collect blood at a rate nobody could do on their own without massive investment. Same with disaster relief. Let's also not forget that most organizations have the volunteer support of a board of extremely qualified business professionals.

It's like this. If you donate $50 to some guy who's going to volunteer for disaster relief vs. $50 to the Red Cross... sure, your $50 is going directly to charity without the expenses. But you don't know if he's going to use that $50 to pay for his meals or to go boozing at night. In many cases, those volunteers spend the entire month learning what to do (and end up being unproductive, even if they're trying hard) while experienced volunteers are able to crank out a ton of work.

So while I appreciate grassroots groups. They don't match the experience of an organization that's done it for a long time. And at least they have to report every dollar they spend their money on. People are free to donate to whatever they want. I'm just saying they should be careful and be better educated to if you're actually impacting anything.

I have gone and ****ing earned those dollars. I donate a portion of my paycheck to the United Way and donate a good percent of my income on charity in general. I volunteer over 100 hours a year to local charities. I have raised thousands of dollars for charity events. So yes, I know how damn hard it is to raise money and think I have a right to have a voice in this.

To your second point, while I'm not the biggest fan of The United Way, it's exactly this mentality that is hurting donations. There's almost a level of arrogance about how much people know. That big organizations shouldn't invest in expenses or management talent or marketing. Actually, the bigger you get, the more important those things become and it saves the organization a lot of money even if they're considered "expenses." If that bothers you, then donate local. But it's ridiculous to suggest that large nonprofits shouldn't have higher expense structures, nor should it shy people away from donating to them. These large organizations can impact in ways small organizations cannot and they require the ability to cover administrative costs to do that.

good for them.

Yup. If you want to make a donation that goes 100% to helping people, go give it to the drunk homeless guy on the street corner and see how much good that does the world.

If you want to really make a difference, donate to a group that provides treatment programs to alcoholics. They may have a bunch of "overhead" for the buildings and staff, but if you want a program to be well-run, you need people who know what they're doing. Staff in the nonprofit sector are people like anyone else, and they don't generally work for free (aside from volunteers, who are great, but can't put in 40 hours a week).

(And for the record, I don't work for a nonprofit, nor do I know anyone well who does. I just get sick of all the misconceptions that people have who have never seriously done their homework.)

Agreed. Thanks for the comments. The responses to this thread show how much misinformation is out there. And it's really sad that a large organization like the boys and girls club (that reports every single thing they do to its minute detail) gets more scrutiny than grassroots efforts.

People are free to spend on whatever they like. I would wish and hope that people at least cared a little bit about impact and would actually do the homework on what they are impacting. Like I said, for all we know, this family is pocketing some of this money. Or maybe one day tipping their friends.