Well here I am in the City and a tad disappointed. Now don't get me wrong; the prospect was daunting, and I accept that the execution would have been difficult. Nevertheless, having made it to the last three of the regional thingy to win a car; it would have been nice to have seen it all through to its natural conclusion.
You see, the lovely people running the competition are giving away £5,000 at each of several regional locations for each winner to have a great day. The competition that is still running, involves competitors writing down in 150 words or less, what they would do with the money on the day. The marketing people offer themes such as water skiing up the Thames, or scoring a penalty at a Premiership Club. Of course these are good ideas, but nevertheless such singular things are solely about the winner. So I proposed spending the lot, every penny, and anything else that I could squeeze out of the situation; on as many worthy causes that I could target in the Cardiff area in one day of defined and thereby limited duration. I mean; even camera crews, helpers, presenters, and marketing people have to go home and have dinner.
Sounds easy in theory, but like I mentioned earlier, it is quite daunting in execution. I know this because I spent a lovely day with my eldest in Cardiff yesterday, thinking and chatting and preparing in case I pulled it off and was selected. We realised that you need to source a roof box and bars, a bike rack and number plate, and so on and so forth. You need to do a trolley dash to load the car and the roof rack before heading off to the Food Bank and then offloading the stuff. It all takes time, and not all of it is great television. You need many hands as you pull up on Albany Road and remove several hundred books from a charity shop and then load them into the show case car. Being a city that is turned over in part to pedestrians; you need to have accessed a trolley that fits in the car, and can be used to transport the books to a different Charity shop for them to dispose of and thereby benefit. Then you need the same trolley to take some food parcels around the city and hand out to some of the Big Issue sellers, along with a hot drink each on what has turned out to be a bitterly cold morning.
Bikes, cycle helmets, and fluorescent stuff for the cycling charity. A camcorder for the hospice that sends families on holiday experiences, an iPad here, a food hamper there. Tickets for shows, and of course a manual wheelchair for a Day Centre as that often struggles through lack of equipment when taking folks out on treats.
So lots to do and not enough hours for filming, checking, shooting, moving, talking, giving, and listening. I don't blame the casting team, the organisers, or the manufacturer. Simply because I understand how these things work. The idea was daunting and not easy to pull off. My answers to the questions may have been the wrong answers, and me being me, may not be the kind of me that they wanted or even needed. But all of that to one side, I do pray that the winner does something worthy and doesn't blow £5k on themselves. I don't begrudge them doing that, but it does seem to me like a wasted opportunity. As that folks would cut across one of my main themes in life: 'we are only here for what we can do for others'.
So as I settle down to another lazy day of coffee, reading, writing, music, and poetry please don't feel for me. Disappointed yes, but its been a great 72 hours thinking of how to help others. Having read this Blog Post, why don't you settle down to a cuppa and spend some time thinking of all of the local charities and worthy causes that you could support, and thereafter work out what they truly need, and what you could do for them.
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