SCA-a-t-Comun-msg - 5/1/01 SCA and the Community. How the SCA can affect the community. Toys-for-Tots, Make -Wish-Foundation, food banks. NOTE: See also the files: SCAguests-msg, SCA-PR-msg, recruitment-msg, SCA-as- family-msg, magic-moments-msg, SCA-The-Dream-msg, non-SCA-part-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the orignator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous mark.s.harris@motorola.com stefan@florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 10:41:11 -0700 From: "Laura C. Minnick" Subject: Re: SC - Iron Chef advice Jenne Heise wrote: > > > While I think bringing modern themes like the Iron Chef or, for that > > matter, Toys for Tots, > > Toys for Tots?? Rediculous to the extreme?? Come on, Ras... we are a > > service oriented society, are we not? Besides, don't you drive your very > > modern car to events?? :) > > Apparently, Ras only approves of doing benefits for medieval > organizations. Must make it hard to do demos in his area. ;) I'm going to give Ras the benefit of the doubt and suggest that he might not have meant it quite as is seems onscreen. It _is_ difficult to link our purpose as an educational organization that celebrates and researches the Middle Ages to various other non-profit endeavors. But in that case I think stepping out of the research mode and saying to ourselves "We have a very unique group of people here who, by our very nature as a group of honor, courtesy, and chivalry, could do something to benefit the greater society outside of our own"- and behaving in our non-profit mode- we could do great things. Just as an example, a group in the West- the Shire of Crosston (and there are Crosstonians on the list- Anahita and His Grace Cariadoc to start) held a war, in honor of the birthdays of a couple their members, as a benefit for... I believe it was the Heart Association. They raised a couple of thousand dollars out there bashing heads. And frankly, I thought it was one of the most magnificent things that I've heard of the SCA doing. I know other groups have done similar things. Heck- the SLUG Queens have been raising money for the new public library (and this is part of the reason I'm glad I'm stepping down on the 18th- I'm TIRED!) and Slugs have *NOTHING* to do with libraries. But we are citizens of our larger community, and we have made a real contribution (almost $3k) to it. And they're going to name the bathrooms after us- they will be called the Throne Rooms. (Tacky, I know- but we're slugs? What do you expect?) My point? It is a good thing for us as individuals and for us as a group to interact in the world around us in a positive manner. Whether we bash heads for the Heart Association, or like some Hospitaller friends of mine- walk in the local March of Dimes walk-a-thon thing in full armour, carrying shields and singing in latin the whole way- it is good for the SCA to been seen not as an exclusive, weird group, but as a group of people with interesting hobbies who use those hobbies to help the world around them. Who put this box under my feet? It seems to say 'Ivory Snow' on the side! Ack! I'd better shut up and sit down before they put me on-stage at the convention! (Say what you will about the Republicans- gotta admit that Gen. Powell is an excellent speaker!) Back to my job-hunting and sewing, 'Lainie Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 12:26:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: SC - Iron Chef advice. Caid is listed with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Once a year, if there is a terminally ill child who wants to be a prince or princess for a day, we put on a tournament for the child. They get a costume especially made for them and get to keep it. They get a "coronation" with all the panoply and presents involved. Jesters amuse them, singers, dancers and actors perform for them and everyone bows to them. They have a knight fight for their honor. From what I have heard, each child has been thrilled with their wish and their families have been also. While some might say that we are merely being entertainment for the dying child, I personally think that this shows the kind-heartedness and the generosity of the SCA members as a whole. Huette Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 18:02:34 -0400 From: Ann & Les Shelton Subject: SC - Re: Make-a-Wish There were 2 Make-a-Wish tournaments held in Southern Atlantia, in 1993 & 1995. The first had 5-6 children in attendance, the second had 3-4. Each child was adopted by a household, who put them and their families up in a pavillion, provided entertainment and attention, and fought in their honor. They all had a great time. One of the highlights of the first tourney was each of the children being ridden around the tourney field on a horse with Queen Muirgen. John Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 22:07:40 EDT From: LrdRas@aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Iron Chef advice BalthazarBlack@aol.com writes: << Toys for Tots?? Ridiculous to the extreme??>> In the context of the SCA....yes. A far better 'charity' function would be one aimed at collecting funds for leper colonies which still exist. Other period 'charities' included hospitals, feeding and clothing the poor, donations to convents and shools/universities and donations to libraries. Children do very well with sticks, stones and mudpies. <> Service to the Society, yes. We are a nonprofit educational organization. I am unaware of any mention of service to the community at large outside the context of education as being one of the SCA official missions according to it's corporate documents. Ras Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 23:52:01 -0400 From: "VonGraph" Subject: Re: SC - Toys for Tots and other comments I missed the beginning of this thread so I am not sure who said what but I would like to make a point for which ever side it falls on. Every year for the last five years the people of Harper's Raid (householde) and before that the now defunct Shire of Glymmerholde have put in a tremendeous amount of work and effort with the Kiwanis Club of Riverdale Florida (yup, mundane, very straight laced and conservative organization) to put on a Medieval Faire here to raise money to help Kids. Scholarships, Shots for Tots program (free imunizations for children), Christmas presents for those who are not on the dole but just working folks who are just not quite making it (155 kids last year), Thanksgiving baskets for Thanksgiving dinner etc. Now we try to educate folks about the SCA and the Medieval Period of our history, but the big thing is to help Kids. WE don't get paid for this, but it sure makes you feel good. And if helping out some mundane organization to help people is somehow not the concept of the SCA who ever said it is full of BS. This Society of ours is to promote honor and goodwill to ALL me meet, not just other Scadians. We have always felt that it the SCA showed mundanes how WE thnk people should treat (and help) each other it might rub off a bit. I beleive we should help in any way we can, either in Scadian group or in the comunity at large, thats the kind of folks Scadians are. YIS, Lord Elric (membership number 009846 if that tells you anything :) Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 08:49:18 EDT From: Bronwynmgn@aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Iron Chef advice jenne@tulgey.browser.net writes: Balthazar said: << > Toys for Tots?? Rediculous to the extreme?? Come on, Ras... we are a > service oriented society, are we not? Besides, don't you drive your very > modern car to events?? :) Jadwiga responded: Apparently, Ras only approves of doing benefits for medieval organizations. Must make it hard to do demos in his area. ;) >> Come on, guys. It's not that he doesn't believe in benefitting the rest of the world, or only benefitting other medieval groups. He's talking about keeping a medieval atmosphere at events. Iron Chef and Toys for Tots didn't exist in our time period; heck, the concept of them didn't exist. If you are in this organization to try to recreate medieval life, it's really hard to do so when there are banners for Toys for Tots everywhere, or when the main event is a recreation of a television show! You can do the same kinds of things without making a big noise about the modern stuff - for instance, how is one of our siege challenges different from Iron Chef? Sure, have people bring a toy to donate to enter the tourney - but don't make a big noise about it during the event, or simply announce that alms for the poor should be given to the almoner at this location. People will know what you are talking about, but it's not as blatantly modernly intrusive. For the record - I agree with Ras. Brangwayna Morgan Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 11:15:55 EDT From: LrdRas@aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Toys for Tots and other comments kattratt@home.com writes: << Do me a favor and don't correct me if I am wrong. Nicholas of Falcon Cree. >> You certainly are not wrong. I just think that in keeping with the 'medieval' theme charities that have are much broader and have more potential for actually 'helping' could be utilized. For instance, I think the Make a Wish Foundation is a good cause (Queen, king, prince/cess for a day thing. I see various causes dedicated to relieving the cares of the poor, various organizations dedicated to the eradication human suffering and religious foundations far more worthy that Toys for Tots. Community activity in charitable causes is not a bad thing. I do think we could be more specific to choosing charities that are a) dedicated to ending human suffering and be b) not 'cutsey' (that is not oriented to emotional response or currently popular with the yuppie mentality). I see nothing wrong with choosing appropriate charities. Distributing Star Wars dolls and monopoly games or plastic cars is not appropriate, IMO. Animals, children's toys and planting trees in the park are not my idea of wise use of charity monies. Relieving physical, mental and financial problems are. I suppose it depends on your perspective but I would rather immunize a child than give it a plastic truck and watch it die of disease 6 months down the road. Ras Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 10:54:34 -0500 From: "Michael F. Gunter" Subject: Re: SC - Toys for Tots and other comments > You certainly are not wrong. I just think that in keeping with the 'medieval' > theme charities that have are much broader and have more potential for > actually 'helping' could be utilized. > > I see nothing wrong with choosing appropriate charities. > > Ras I actually agree with Ras on many aspects. I like the thought of doing charity fundraising for causes that our Medieval counterparts would have have supported. I also agree about his feelings on things like "Toys for Tots" or other non-critical New Age type charities. But one thing to remember is that often the SCA has a hard enough time with the local communities and if a group helps out with some functions then it raises awareness and acceptance within the community. As an example, our barony once supplied the Dallas Police Department with scores of handmade teddy bears for the officers to keep in their patrol cars. These were used to comfort children who would be in the extremely stressful situations caused when the police had to be involved. Not period or even practical. But we gained a lot of ground with the police. But having tournaments or feasts and making them an "Alms for the Poor" theme where the proceeds go to the local food banks or hospice would be a period act as well as giving to the community. Helping a community who asks for our presence for a "Medieval Faire" to help the poor I also feel would be a noble endeavor no matter what the end gift is. I'm glad Ras likes the "Make A Wish" tournament because if he opposed that I would have to send the brute squad to convince him otherwise. I have no problem with "Toys for Tots" or help for the animal shelter or park restoration programs (especially if it is the park the local group uses) but many of these could be individual contributions. Taking Ras' advice to start looking to period charities and/or ways to present charity activities in a Medieval light is a good idea. Gunthar Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 13:27:56 -0400 From: "Philippa Alderton" Subject: SC - Ras uncharitable? No Way!!!!! Many of us question the propriety of mixing mundane charities with our Medieval activities. I have no problem if it's mentioned up front, whether it's Toys for Tots, or anything else, but I strongly resent things like what happened a few months ago at a local event. Some folk advocating the charity of their choice (can't remember which one) pulled off a kidnapping of the Baroness, in order to raise money for their charity. That would have been fine, as far as it went, but they then held forth for half an hour during Feast about how worthy their charity was, etc. I found this extremely distasteful and rude, and told the Baron as much. Now, I have no problem with this or any other charity, but my resentment stems from the fact that there was no announcement anywhere that this Feast and event were held partially in support of this charity. If I had known, then I could have chosen whether or not to attend and support the effort, but as it was, it was sprung on me when I was in an SCA state of mind, not in a mundane state of mind, and it ruined the Feast for me and several others. So, please, folks, do what you feel you must or want to for whatever charity, but at least do the rest of us the honor of letting us know ahead of time. Phlip Philippa Farrour Caer Frig Southeastern Ohio Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 10:25:47 -0700 (PDT) From: ashbrooke@excite.com Subject: Re: SC - Toys for Tots and other comments A possible alternative, especially for a bear-pit: fighters bring a number of cans of food, get one token per can donated. Each combat sees the loser gift the winner with a token, the overall winner is the fighter with the most tokens when nobody else wants another round. The food goes to the nearest local food bank. Local benefit, no overhead, and food banks, at least around here, are perpetually in need of donations. Ragnar Ketilsson, BMDL, Aethelmearc Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 14:34:03 -0400 From: Elaine Koogler Subject: Re: SC - Toys for Tots and other comments We also have found a local charity/foodbank that will accept any "leftovers" from feasts that we serve. The food must not have been served (in other words, we don't scrape out the bowls that have come back from tables), but it can be prepared. This is something that takes very little effort (packaging up the leftovers, delivering them to the charity), and reaps many wonderful rewards, not the least of which is the knowledge that food that might have been wasted has gone to feed those who might have otherwise gone hungry. Kiri Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 11:57:28 -0700 From: "Laura C. Minnick" Subject: Re: SC - Toys for Tots and other comments All right- I'm not outta here yet (GRRR) and I can't resist answering this... BalthazarBlack@aol.com wrote: > > I just think that in keeping with the 'medieval' > > theme charities that have are much broader and have more potential for > > actually 'helping' could be utilized. For instance, I think the Make a > Wish > > Foundation is a good cause (Queen, king, prince/cess for a day thing. > > Allright. How does letting a terminally ill child sit on the throne for a > few hours relieve suffering or financial woes? How does it "help" at all? > In truth, it doesn't help the child or their family one bit, but it makes > EVERYONE involved feel better.... just like the Toys For Tots campaign, or > ANY other event dedicated to a charitable organization. I do, however, agree > that our efforts MAY be better used to raise money (or, perish the thought, > provide labor) for the construction of new schools, hospitals or research > centers.... Maybe a special wing of the hospital dedicated to treating the > Black Death would be "appropriate"? Bal, have you ever heard of the Boy Bishops? There were traditions (particularly in France and England, 13th-16th c or so) of one day a year upending the social order. This usually involved taking a boy and making him Bishop for a Day, Lord for a day, wahtever. Very like our Mayor for a day traditions here in the States. Sometimes it would be a beggar rather than a child. There would be partying and feasting (sometimes as long as a week) and much is made of the Substitute Ruler. What did it do? Generally it is held that the traditions sprung up as a means of easing social tensions, especially if folks weren't too happy at the moment. When it was done, everyone went back to their normal routine. I guess you can say it did nothing tangible but only made people feel better... As to the modern tradition- it actually does help- giving the kid a happy day raises their endorphins and can make them more comfortable if it doesn't substatially change their condition. And most of these kids are dying- I would rather a child take some happy memories of adults who threw a cool party for him. I know if one of my kids were in that position I'd do everything in my power to that end. 'Lainie Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 11:52:12 -0700 From: Susan Fox-Davis Subject: Re: SC - Toys for Tots and other comments > > I just think that in keeping with the 'medieval' > > theme charities that have are much broader and have more potential for > > actually 'helping' could be utilized. For instance, I think the Make a Wish > > Foundation is a good cause (Queen, king, prince/cess for a day thing. > > Allright. How does letting a terminally ill child sit on the throne for a > few hours relieve suffering or financial woes? How does it "help" at all? > In truth, it doesn't help the child or their family one bit, but it makes > EVERYONE involved feel better.... just like the Toys For Tots campaign, or > ANY other event dedicated to a charitable organization. We hear back from their caregivers that the children who have been our Wish Princes and Princesses showing more life-signs and survival rates than anyone expected for children in their respective conditions. It's a fine line, a child must have a terminal illness but still be well enough to enjoy their 'wish.' A day away from the dreary hospital routine is always a treat, but making a dream come true can have long-reaching effects which cannot be bought with any currency. A tale is told of Prince Ramon, some months after his Day as our Wish Prince, lying in a coma and not expected to last but hours or days. Someone put his sword and his shield in his hands, and he awoke and rallied. What monetary contribution could compare? Yes, we who serve to make these days happen feel good too, but that's a happy side effect. It has been a few years since we've had one of these tourneys, I wish we could do it again some time soon. Selene proud court jester and occasional horsie to the Wish Princehood in Caid Edited by Mark S. Harris SCA-a-t-Comun-msg 8