Badgermaniac/Wisconsin Holiday Fund

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Mods- Please feel free to delete/move this if you feel it is inappropriate- I am posting this here at BF.net, because of the large amount of posters that Brewerfan.net and Badgermaniac.com share between them. Brian & the BF staff do an absolutely incredible job of creating/maintaining this site, and I would suggest that grateful BF.net members consider making a donation to this Holiday fund in their honor.

 

In recent years, Wisconsin sports fans have gotten together to adopt needy Dane County families through the First Unitarian Church in Madison. This got started on the old Badgermaniac.com board, when somebody wanted to take up a collection for BM to buy him something nice in gratitude for his board. He declined. Board members took up a collection for needy families instead, and it has grown every year.

 

This is how it works. The Nice Unitarian Lady (or NUL) assigns us families. Each family is summarized on a single sheet. We learn the names, genders, ages, sizes, and wish lists of each member.

We raise money. We take the money and use it to buy gifts. Each family gets a gift card for a holiday dinner. Every person gets a piece of Badger wear, with Steve & Barry's and Insignia giving us nice discounts. We go shopping at the mall. We go shopping at ShopKo, which is kind of hard to explain, especially to the poor cashier who gets stuck with us. Then we go to a bar and wrap it all. A BM poster throws it in his van and takes it to the Unitarians, and a lot of people who weren't going to have a good holiday all of a sudden do because of us. Which is cool.

 

Current wish lists for the first 4 families we have committed to sponsoring are at the bottom of this thread. This does not happen without your help. It especially does not happen without your ... money. Last year, we raised about $7800. In the past, we have collected donations by mail. A BM poster (Petronius) cashes them, tracks the expenditures, and provide a full accounting to anyone who wants it. He would prefer not to post his True Identity online, so please contact him either through a PM (if you are also a BM member) or by e-mail at xav13@hotmail.com.

 

All of this is done on faith. We ask people to make a specific pledge when they contact him because the organizers need to know how many families to tell the NUL to give us. So far, we have asked her to assign us 50 people. We budget about $100/person -- little kids are cheaper because they don't need very much, and dads are very cheap because they usually don't ask for anything at all. Teenage girls and families that need winter coats are more expensive.

 

This year the schedule is as follows:

 

Mall trip: December 6 at East Towne.

Shopko trip: December 12, in the evening (we go to the Shopko by the airport because nobody else does)

Wrapping: December 13 at Pooley's, at 12:30 (thanks CPooley4!)

Delivery: December 14, during the morning service

 

Times are hard this year, no question. I expect that donations will be down because the economy is lousy for all of us. Give what you can, whether it's money, time, or your questionable package wrapping skills. Remember though, that if times are hard for you, they're really, really hard for the people at the bottom of the economic scale. I think this year they need us more than they ever have. There's usually a lot of winter coats on the list. Imagine living in Wisconsin and not being able to buy a warm winter coat for your daughter.

 

Do what you can, and thank you. The generosity of Wisconsinites amazes me.

 

A link to this Holiday Fund Discussion can be found at: http://mbd.scout.com/mb.a...&f=2570&t=3449434. I would never use this site to promote something for personal gain, but feel that this would be a great opportunity for Brewer Fans and Wisconsin Sports Fans to band together to take a difference. We maybe could even expand to include Milwaukee families in future years.

 

Feel free to PM me if you'd like more information, and I'll help direct you with contact information to the organizers. All funds handled through a Madison Law Firm.

 

EDIT: Holiday Wish lists for our first families are posted below:

 

I have now received most of the family information from the NUL. This is what we're in for:

 

Family 90: (see if you can figure out the theme)

 

Mom (age 39): Wants: winter clothes.

Dad (37): Wants: winter clothes.

Daughter (14): Wants: winter clothes, boom box

Daughter (10): Wants: Bratz dolls, boom box

Son (5): Wants Winter coat, sweater, wrestling toys, "remote detonation cars"

 

Family 67: (these guys are repeats)

 

Mom did not ask for anything.

Son (16): PS2

Son (10: Gameboy or hand game

Daughter (9): Baby doll or hand game

Daughter (8): Leapfrog book or game

Daughter (7): Leapfrog book doll

Son (5): Truck; ABC game

Daughter (1): Doll with pink dress

Son (2): Truck or cars 1-2-3

Son (5 mos): Baby toys

 

Family 20

 

Mom (48): Gift certificate

Daughter (18): Snowboots, sweater, black Van's shoes

Son (14): Sweater, CD/Radio

Daughter (13): Alarm clock, sweater

Son (7): Snowboots, winter coat, Yu-Gi-Oh cards

Son (5): Toys, toys, games

Daughter (4): Toys, Dora doll, stickers

Son (1): Warm clothes, toys.

 

Family 35:

 

Mom (44): Mall gift card, black dishes

Son (23): Tshirt, body wash, Axe cologne

Daughter (21): Mall gift certificate

Daughter (19): gold jewelry, perfume, bodywash, CDs

Daughter (17): Gorman gift card, MP3 player, Burlington (?)

Daughter (15): Chris Brown CD, body wash, Plies CD

Daughter (14): Perfume, bodywash, giftcard

Son (12): Axe bodywash, cologne, gift card

Daughter (9): Pink snowpants, bodywash

Son (7): Trucks, cars. Socks.

Son (4): Trucks, cars

 

This is a total of 33 people. We have one more family coming, which should bring us up to around 44. Most adopt-a-family volunteers are families or offices, and it's hard for her to find people to take the large families. That means we need to raise a minimum of $4900 to buy gifts and holiday dinner gift cards for everyone. If it becomes clear that that's just too much to do this year (because it's been a bad year), I can always tell her that we can't do the last family.

 

See if you can find the hint in the last paragraph. It's well concealed, but you guys are very, very perceptive.

 

Happy Thanksgiving.