Metadish, Fresh from NYC

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Just got this in the mail from an anonymous tipster that walked in the New York AIDS walk yesterday.

I walked in the New York AIDS Walk, which was this past Sunday. It took place in Central Park, and the rain managed to hold off until the end of the walk, when almost everyone had cleared out/finished the walk. At the end, there was a team responsible for handing out “awards.” If people reach a certain fundraising goal, they get a t-shirt. If they go higher, they get a t-shirt and hat. If they go even higher, they get a t-shirt, hat and some other premuim (this year it was tote bags). And it just goes up from there. All the items are donated, so it really is little to no cost but it gives people incentive to work toward a bigger and better goal.

Many companies ranging from Starbucks to Whole Foods to Frito Lay to Ben and Jerry’s to Coke donate snacks, food, drinks and more to the walkers to eat on the 6.2 mile walk and to the people who work the event as well. Even people who DON’T walk can take free samples.

Now, I can’t believe the greed of people when presented with all this. There were people filling up plastic shopping bags with free samples, filling up boxes, going from table to table, grabbing handfuls of stuff, spending the day just eating and demanding free stuff. And not all of them were homeless. Some had bags from high end department stores.

When they came to the awards tent, people were angry when people had to refuse them a t-shirt or bag. Some people who had raised a mimimum amount actually said, “I raised all that money (their amounts were $25.00 or $30.00) for NOTHING? I can’t even get a t-shirt?!”

Someone was caught stealing t-shirts and bags from one of the tables. When they refused some people because they didn’t have the proper paperwork and we were closed for the day, they grew so outraged…”I’M NEVER DOING THE WALK AGAIN! This is disgusting!” They offered them some of the food that the people working the walk and the volunteers had been given. They pounced and grabbed trays of muffins, bags of sandwiches…everything that was there was gone.

I guess I’ll never stop being shocked that people have a weird sense of entitlement. Rather than think, how can I help, they think, what’s in it for me?

You have to wonder, do they want the t-shirt just for the shirt, or just to prove how good a person they are for walking in the AIDS walk?

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