posted
Last night, around 11:30 p.m., our dogs started barking and we heard footsteps. My first thought was that it was our neighbor, looking for her cat, but we didn't hear anyone speak and Marilyn has no problem calling out to her cats day and night (and one of them is named something so close to Kira that it always freaks Andrew and me out). There was obviously more than one person and they were going sort of slowly. I got my gun and made sure that the door was locked and the chain was up. After a while, there was a sound like someone dropping something and the footsteps went away from the house. The dogs relaxed, Andrew went back to sleep, I put my gun away and went back to talking about last night's Desperate Housewives on TWoP.
This morning we discovered that there is a toilet on our lawn. A toilet. On our lawn. Attached was the following note:
quote:Greetings from the Hollins Chapter of Habitat for Humanity
As you can see from the "guest" on you lawn, you have been nominated by a neighbor to participate in our fundraiser. This guest is a representation of poverty housing because the guest is, for many people, an unaffordable luxury. H4H is committed to ending poverty housing and poverty living conditions, and we are asking for your help in "removing poverty housing" by having us remove the guest from your lawn. If you chose [sic] not participate, we fully understand, but if you do wish to participate, we have three options for removal.
When you have made your decision, please contact ___________ at ____. We look forward to hearing from you.
*Insurance so that the guest cannot be sent to your house again. +Sending consists of choosing who will next be visited by the guest. Hosts must reside in [list of faculty campus addresses]. Please make checks out to Hollins SGA with Habitat for Humanity on the memo line.
Andrew and I are not amused. Andrew is understandably annoyed that he was woken up and that his wife was alarmed. I am annoyed because THERE IS A TOILET ON OUR LAWN. This is not the way to fundraise, this is a way to alienate people who would have been glad to donate had they been asked. I'm angry on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, because I will be very reluctant to donate in the future. The note is especially grating - I don't need spoiled, rich girls to lecture me on poverty housing. It's wrong to try to force people to donate money. I'm annoyed on behalf of our neighbors, who are not as fortunate as Andrew and I are financially.
How do y'all think we should respond? We are certainly not giving them any money. We live on top of a hill, so it would be very easy for us to just roll the toilet down it. Andrew wants to call them and say that he'll make a $20 donation if they write a letter of apology and then donate the money to another charity (he would just say that he'll make a donation, not that he'll make a donation to Habitat for Humanity). I don't know what I want to do - I'm still too annoyed to think straight.
posted
I would call and advise H for H that while you support their work, you are not amused, and that you question the legality of dumping toilets on people's lawns. Also advise them that if the toilet is not gone by the next morning, their next advice will be from your lawyer.
posted
Huh. I've seen this type of thing done with pink flamingos (which was actually kind of cute) but never with toilets. Wonder who it was that nominated you for this. I'd just call them and tell them to come get the toilet, with the explanation that I give privately to charities. If they don't like it, too bad - they shouldn't have stuck a toilet on my lawn.
posted
Hmm, if they tried that with me, that toilet would end up back at their offices - possibly via the window.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I wonder if HfH even knows this is going on, or whether someone locally decided to do it and didn't inform HQ.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Free toilets are good for a lot of things. You can make them into interesting planters. You can paint them and enter them in art contests. You can install them in your house if your toilet breaks down. Seriously I'd call Habitat for Humanity and see if they take donated items for building houses. Then donate the toilet. Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Don't forget the subtle threats of lawsuits.
Of course, you don't want a brick hurled through your window with a note saying that many people live in cinderblock houses and can't afford bricks.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Oh - the toilet thing for a fund-raiser is pretty common, really. You've never heard of it, Mrs. M?
Our C.S.O. (like a PTA) did a decorate toilet thing all the time for a fund raiser. One person would pay to put it on someone else's lawn, who woulc in turn pay to have it moved to another person, etc. etc.
Farmgirl
(of course, ours were always decorate all cool with some theme, so you would know it was that kind of a joke...)
posted
Free toilet. Keep their little note, and if they want their toilet back, tell them to speak to your lawyer. I'd call it vandalism.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Actually, I'm building a house. I'd like a free toilet. Is it functional? How far are you from Indiana and how much would I have to pay to get it here?
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
That's actually not such a bad idea to raise money, especially considering that cheap housing is under fire. It's annoying, yet effective. And very funny. A toilet!
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I have heard of this fundraising method before, but I didn't recall it was a porcelain statue. I would suggest they use something else, if you're offended...maybe a large, hot pink, plastic flamingo?
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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They did this last year when RAGBRAI visited Fort Dodge. The toilets were on platforms with wheels, and I think they used plungers like ski poles.
It's probably a good idea that you called the H4H chapter - they may put a stop to this and you have performed a public service.
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
This ticks me off, because I donate a considerable amount of money each year to H4H. I'd contact them about it, if I were you, and explain why it's inappropriate.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Farmgirl: Interesting. I guess if it is a humor thing, a tradition, that everyone knows and is used to, it could be considered cute. I still don't like the idea, though.
I much prefer the grocery stores asking if I want to donate a buck to some organization or another. They do that in this area all the time.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
In Farmgirl's description, these are all members of the organization it sounds like. They have notice to protest before it happens. This is like a random attack. I'm assuming Andrew was targeted by a student in one of his classes.
posted
Actually, from the description, it sounds like someone paid them $10 to put a toilet on Andrew's lawn.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
That's an obnoxious way to ask for a donation. I would be pissed, too.
quote:Free toilets are good for a lot of things. You can make them into interesting planters.
Actually, a plumber on our block did this. We used to laugh everytime we walked past his house and saw it. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Okay, this is not sanctioned by the local H4H chapter and it's not a national program. They were as incredulous as I was. The executive director is out, but the very nice lady I spoke to said that she is going to want to speak to me. She also said that the international organization (which I assume is separate from the local) works with schools on fundraising, but I just cannot imagine them sanctioning this program.
I can see the humor in it, but it doesn't change the fact that this is plain wrong.
They should have researched Andrew more - a legal ethics professor with a law degree and a hormonal Southern wife is not a good candidate for this fundraiser.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
An artsy woman in our neighborhood once had a variety of beautifully decorated toilets lining her yard with roses and tulips and violets and all growing out of the tank and the bowl . . .
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
One of the cancer research charities here does pink flamingos in the same way....you get 50 pink flamingos in your front yard, and for a donation, they'll take them away. I remember thinking when I read about it in the newspaper that it was an obnoxious way to raise money.
Then one of our neighbors got flamingoed. And it was really actually kind of cute. A zillion flamingos in your front yard looks obviously like a prank. A toilet in the front yard, not so much.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
In that case, Dag, I'd be sending H4H a bill instead of a donation. Or perhaps selling the toilet to recoup the losses...
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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You could use it then pay the $10 for them to pick it up. Worth the money. At least with the pink flamangos they're aren't very heavy and you can get rid of them easily.
It's bordering on extortion, but the amount is so trivial, $10...it's like nuisance extortion.
Once when we came upon a toilet in the woods while frisbee golfing we put a rocket into it. The rocket went around and round faster and faster, with a high-pitched "kkkkwwwweeeee" sound. Then it went off, sending flames shooting over our heads. It was sweet! Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
That's kinda sad. I've always had a lot of respect for H4H. The flamingo thing sounds a bit better...like, if there were one.
Take the toilet and put deccopaje (spelling was brutally butchered) on it. A friend next door did that and it's really cute.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I have a neighbor who has a couple of urinals and toilet seats mounted on his fence as kind of a kitsch artish thing. They have other old period signs mounted and an old gas station pump that lights up too. It's kind of tacky but done about as tastefully as that kind of tackiness can be done. At least they live pretty far down the block from me. There are no HOAs in our neighborhood.
posted
On the topic of "different" fundraisers, this year 3 Brownies (little girls in Girl Guides, a club) came to my place and were raising money for their winter camp. For $1.00 they'd build a "little" snowman in my front yard, for $2.00 they'd build a "medium" sized snowman and for $3.00 they'd make the biggest snowman they could
I thought it was cute
Posts: 944 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Awww . . . cute little brownies. See, that's a good fundraiser. Appeal to people's parental instincts.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I have to agree with the general concensus here - a toilet is tacky/nasty/trashy. Flamingoes would obviously be a joke, and campy as opposed to trashy. They're lucky they didn't get SHOT mucking around in your yard late at night.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Personally I love Jenny's idea of donating it to H4H. Seems like the perfect solution, really. A close second would be Dag's idea of making it impossible to lift, and then having the extorters cart it away.
I wouldn't really be offended if someone did this to me, but I also wouldn't be encouraged to donate by means of this tactic.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Since the organization apparently did not know about this, I think calling them was the right choice. They need to stop this before someone sues them or something.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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