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

[mikey23545]

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

[Predarat]

Mr Pink would not approve of this jester

[QuikSsurfer]

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

[ShortRoundChief]

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.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

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.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

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.

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.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

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?

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.

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

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.

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

[RaiderH8r]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

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.

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.

[Rasputin]

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

Spoiler!

that damn cable and internet bill aint going pay for itself (suckers)

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Valiant

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

"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.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by RaiderH8r

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 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.

[Johnny Vegas]

good for them.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

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.

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.)

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by DaFace

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.