Editorial
Students should continue to give without incentive
December 2, 2010
There are many benefits to being charitable. What seems as the most popular benefit lately is winning prizes or receiving something of monetary value in return.
This weekend, students and the community have a chance to help the hungry, win prizes and watch a great hockey game as both men and women teams will be collecting donations for the River Falls Food Pantry. For each item donated, participants will be entered in a raffle for prizes.
River Falls Municipal Utilities is also providing incentives to support the River Falls Food Pantry sponsoring a non-food household and toiletry product drive. Except for being entered in a raffle, RFMU will exchange a compact fluorescent light bulb for donations.
While these types of incentives to donate work incredibly well, isn’t the main point of charity to help your fellow man?
Don’t our parents and all the classic holiday stories made into movies like “A Christmas Carol” teach us that personal gain of wealth isn’t what matters most. Good feelings that come from helping others should be the driving incentive.
Feeling that your actions and the choices you make actually have effects on other people in the world can be an empowering thought.
Even though as college students we have a significant amount of student loans and may not have jobs, we’re doing better than many.
According to the Miniature Earth Project, if you have a roof over your head, keep your clothes in a closet, sleep in a bed and keep food in a refrigerator, you are richer than 75 percent of the world population.
If you can afford to buy an ice cream treat at Dairy Queen, you can afford to give $3 to any cause. Remember, there are many different chairites to donate to. You can decide where your money goes. Whether it stays here helping Americans, helps those oversees possibly in Haiti or to a church or a secular organization; a little bit can go a long way.
Chairity can also take the form of volunteering and doesn’t have to cost you any money at all.
This holiday season, consider taking your family to help at a soup kitchen or wraping gifts to donate rather than giving each other items that you don’t need or that will only collect dust in the back corner of the closet.
Please, support in any way you can. You can even enjoy that CFL lightbulb or the sweatshirt you won at the hockey game by donating, but don’t stop there.