Charity Begins at Home

Charles Dickens wrote, in Martin Chuzzlewit, that, "Charity begins at home and justice begins next door."   As I haven't read Martin Chuzzlewit I have no idea if Dickens meant this to be a good or a bad thing.  In fact, I haven't read any Dickens since I was about 12 and can't remember much of what I read then, except that Dickens believed in Charity.  He lived in Victorian England, where the poor were literally starving and he knew that people needed help.  I did read Bleak House and remember that Mrs Jellybelly (I think that was her name) was more worried about the little black babies than she was about looking after her own children and I'm sure as 'Charity' became popular people did jump on band wagons, rather than look at what they could do in their own neighbourhood.  Many of the big Charities we still support today have their roots in Victorian England; Barnardos, Save the Children and the Children's Society.  Victorian England also started welfare reform and allowed everyone to become philanthropists  through income tax.

Some people are very much against helping others.  There is a man at the allotment who is always telling my mum about people (usually single women)  who don't work who get everything, 'paid by OUR TAXES.'  My mum tells him that she didn't mind that.  That she would much rather pay something than see unmarried women live on the streets with their children! 

There seem to be so many Charities and so many events it's often difficult to know which to support.  Our Youth Orchestra is a registered Charity because it's the only way we can keep the whole of our £1 a week per person subscription to run the orchestra and apply for grants like lottery funding to buy big items like Timpani.  Every week there is a new sponsorship form on the staff room table from someone who is walking, running, cycling or just sitting in a bath of baked beans.  There are so many awareness days that this month sees Breast Cancer Awareness jostling for attention with Blindness Awareness,  Jeans for Genes, Hospice Day, World Arthritis Day, Child Poverty Day and many more including Chocolate week and Bramley Apple Pie week.

Yesterday, I went to an event to support the Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation.  If I'm honest I wasn't looking forward to it.  Not because I didn't want to support the charity but because I'm a grumpy old woman who doesn't really like to go out on a Saturday night, especially to somewhere where there will be lots of children that I teach.  A band called the Whoppers, who weren't bad at all played a mixture of songs, mainly from my teenage years.  They had a very strange sign, which no one I asked seemed to understand. 

It was a great evening, full of fun and it raised £600 for the Charity and the raffle was fabulous.  They had worked so hard to get loads of brilliant prizes and we  won three.  Now, normally, I would have put prizes back in after the first one, but there were easily enough prizes for everyone who was there.  

JDRF is a charity that deserves support.  It is a medical charity that is working to find a cure for type 1 Diabetes.  Type 1 diabetes is a chronic, life-threatening condition.  It is an auto-immune system condition and is not related to diet or exercise.  It develops when the body's own immune system attacks and destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas.  It reduces life expectancy by about 20 years and is the leading cause of blindness and limb amputations (not caused by trauma) in working-age adults.  The risk of stroke and heart disease is five times greater with this condition and it is not something that people get better from.  Suffers would die if they didn't test regularly and inject themselves with insulin approximately 5 or 6 times a day.  This disease doesn't seem fair.  The charity are funding research into stopping or reversing the immune response that causes type 1 diabetes, triggering the body to grow new insulin producing cells, treatments and therapies to combat the complications of the disease and ways to control the condition, such as an artificial pancreas.  

The event I went to was organised by the parents of a wonderful girl that I am lucky enough to teach.  She suddenly fell ill a few years ago at Christmas time and copes brilliantly with the injections and monitoring her food intake.  Her mother and Aunt are going to run the London Marathon later in the year to raise even more funds for the charity and when they do I will add a link to their just giving page but in the meantime more information can be found about JDRF on their website www.jdrf.org.uk

Christmas Cards

Just the thought of Christmas cards makes me go all Bah Humbug.  I don't like writing them and I don't know what to do with them when I get them.  They go on the bookcase or mantelpiece and gather dust until New Year's day when I finally get the courage to put them in the card recycling box.  This sort of attitude should be reserved for Grumpy Old Women only but I've always felt like this.

When the red post box came out at school I just used to think, 'Oh no, here we go again!'  Every day someone would be chosen to empty the post box and sort the cards during their lunch time.  That someone was usually me.  Not being very sporty or outdoorsy  kind of person and being able to read did mean lunchtimes running up to Christmas playing postman. After lunch we would all sit on the carpet and have our cards given out.  You could instantly spot the slightly smelly kid because they'd only get one or two cards.  The popular, good looking children would have hundreds to open every day.  It was ritual humiliation.  If people on the carpet next to you found out that you had received a card from 'Smelly James' your life could turn into a living hell and the shame of getting a card from someone you forgot to write one to still haunts me.

I know great Aunt Maude would just love a Christmas card from me, even if it was a hideous picture of robins in the snow with candles and holly in the background and she must think that I'm very rude and thoughtless for not sending them.  But I think sending Christmas cards is thoughtless.  The number of cards I receive that don't even have my name written inside is staggering and I'm always surprised by people who don't know their own children's names.  They write, "with love from Bill and family".

 Some people do make more effort.  Some make their own Christmas cards and we have one friend who always took a family photo to put onto his Christmas cards. Others add round robin letters that explain how Brian has just joined the army, Amy has just been accepted to the Royal Ballet school and how happy they all are since Fred left to set up home with his 21 year old mistress.  For some reason, though, I find these 'extras' pretentious.

A few years ago I found some very funny Christmas cards that I did give just to my very best friends who I thought would appreciate them.  It was a Charity card by Shelter called Santa's Full Monty.

I noticed that the Political leaders have tried to go personal this year with their Christmas cards.  David Cameron has a very strange picture with his wife and 2 Children, one of whom has his face painted in the Union flag.  I don't even think the children belong to him.

Ed Miliband has a black and white picture of his family that make him look as though he is stuck in the 1950's desperately trying to get out.  

I think Nick Clegg has the best card this year, drawn by his son. I like the idea of We Wish You No Homework.

The Queen's card look like she is just about to beat Philip around the head with her stick and the Corgi is wondering who ate all the mince pies.

Kate and William have yet to announce their official Christmas card.  Maybe, like me, they will be donating money to a good cause instead.  

What would you do for charity?

Huge charity events make people behave like nuts.  It must work too because there seem to be more and more of them.

I'm more of a consumer than a provider of charity event services.  Obviously, in 6th form and college I did Rag Week; dressed in Pyjamas and raced in a supermarket trolley and when I worked in a bank I dressed up in whatever we were told to wear; spots, ears, red noses. Now I tend to buy cakes that I don't want and are a bit ugly or burnt made by children with grubby hands. I confess to buying half a dozen yesterday and throwing 5 1/2  of them away.

I have never:

1. Dressed as a fury animal
2. Sat in a tub of baked beans
3. Shaved my hair off
4. Grown facial hair
5. Let the children at orchestra paint spots all over me with lipstick
6. Taken part in any running event (as a runner - I will be playing in the band for the annual Santa fun run)
7. Sang live on TV

The Plume school choir did sing live on TV for Children in Need and were brilliant.  Each region sang and they were all broadcast simultaneously.  It must have been a technical nightmare but Gareth Malone was on hand to wave his arms in the London studio so they all kept in time beautifully.  Unfortunately, our region wasn't shown in the main broadcast and it is clear that that was because it would have shown the others up.



I know their teachers and parents will be very proud of them.  I was just one proud parent who was only able to show my support by donating money to Children in Need.