That sounded like a good idea so I did it. Surprisingly this year’s total
came to a record of $279.33, all from loose change.
Now I am sure you are all very happy for me and my wooden box. But
telling you about my wealth discovering secrets isn’t why I am writing this
piece. The real reason for this story is the chart below.
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10000 |
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8000 |
8200 |
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6000 |
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7400 |
7300 |
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4000 |
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4900 |
5750 |
5000 |
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2000 |
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2772 |
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0 |
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1962 |
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UofL |
UConn |
Pitt |
WVU |
RU |
Cuse |
USF |
UC |
I stopped by the UCATS office last
week for a visit, while there I decided to play devils advocate and challenge
the UCATS team by asking “why should I or anyone else give to UCATS?” They came
at me with several answers that were probably very good and certainly well
intended, but I still wasn’t’ buying. I wanted to know as a father of 4 with a
mortgage and all the other expenses in life what was in it for me? Now I’m no
Scrooge, I’m plenty charitable but I guess when I think of giving, organizations
like Children’s Hospital win the battle.
The charity angle wasn’t going to work on me at all. But my weakness was
soon discovered, I’m as competitive as they come. I genuinely think that
everything I am involved with should be the absolute best it can possibly be. It
was the chart that got me.
The chart is the number of individuals who give to the respective Big
East programs. There was my alma mater, dead last by a large margin. What made
it really sad was that I know UC is the 3-rd largest school in the conference,
only USF and Rutgers have more students and in
theory at least, more alumni. We could fit Syracuse into McMicken Hall and they have us
easily beaten. I wasn’t’ happy about this at all.
Now that I was exposed the numbers started coming. UC has 207,000 alumni,
if only 10% committed to give something UC would be number 1 in the conference,
at least in numbers of givers. They also hit me with the knowledge that I can
tell them how to spend the money I do give, 40 % Football, 40% men’s basketball,
15% women’ sports, 5% baseball and men’s soccer for instance. I liked that a
lot.
However, my original question remained but was now slightly altered. How
could a father of 4 with a mortgage and all the other expenses in life give to
UCATS? Then it hit me, the box. Every day for the past few years I have
mindlessly dumped money into the box, now I had a purpose. Make UC number 1.Here
is the plan I came up with for myself and my box.
Starting with $279 dollars from my loose change box;
| Purchase |
Cost |
| 2 End Zone Seats |
$120.00 ($60 each) |
| UCATS Fees |
$50.00 |
| BCI Membership |
$89.00 |
| Total |
$260.00 |
Yes, It's crazy but I still pay for my membership!
That leaves me with $19 bucks for a couple of Warsteiner’s at Nippert.
Not bad for loose change.
Just to be clear, it isn’t my intent to tell anyone how
they should spend their own hard earned money; those are personal choices that
need to be personal. My point is we all want UC to be the best in the
conference, and really the best in the nation. Anything worth having costs
something, but the cost of doing something may not be as much you
think.
|
10000 |
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|
|
|
|
|
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|
8000 |
8200 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6000 |
|
7400 |
7300 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
4000 |
|
|
|
4900 |
5750 |
5000 |
|
|
|
2000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2772 |
|
|
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1962 |
|
|
UofL |
UConn |
Pitt |
WVU |
RU |
Cuse |
USF |
UC |