The 'stolen' turkey dinner... UPD #331 p23

[greencat]

I think, as the old saying goes, the TurkeyLady "Had her cake and ate it too" meaning that she benefited both from the attributes of the object (the goodwill and status and potential tax benefits of donating) and from the consumption of the object (literally getting to eat the turkey dinner, in this case.)

It was definitely fishy that she was given a copied receipt with a handwritten expiration date and the original donor kept the original receipt and used it to pick up the turkey...

Sister definitely needs to go to the organizers of the auction at the church and let them know exactly what happened, and I believe that she needs to have her money returned to her or the turkey dinner "made good" unless she is willing to make it a no-strings-attached donation instead of a charity auction purchase.

Also, of course, posting so I get an update notification when GrammarNerd is ready

[peach2play]

Awww I got all the way to the end hoping for an update *sniffle*.  I will simply have to console myself with some good guac and chips.

[Softly Spoken]

I've been involved in a few auction fiascoes (as the prize donor not the bidder/winner) and I am not surprised that this happened. All too often a charity fundraiser degenerates into backbiting and ridiculous entitlement - when the whole point is supposed to be about giving to others!

I don't know what it is about charity auctions that turn people into gimme pigs. When we ran a party business together, my friend and I came to loathe the "auction parties" - we had done them for publicity but quickly realized NOT WORTH IT and NEVER AGAIN!

So yeah that's me ranty two cents...anyways, update plz?  *does Puss n Boots eyes*

[KenveeB]

Also posting for updates. I hope we hear something!

[Kaypeep]

I've been involved in a few auction fiascoes (as the prize donor not the bidder/winner) and I am not surprised that this happened. All too often a charity fundraiser degenerates into backbiting and ridiculous entitlement - when the whole point is supposed to be about giving to others!

I don't know what it is about charity auctions that turn people into gimme pigs. When we ran a party business together, my friend and I came to loathe the "auction parties" - we had done them for publicity but quickly realized NOT WORTH IT and NEVER AGAIN!

So yeah that's me ranty two cents...anyways, update plz?  *does Puss n Boots eyes*

At my last job at a zoo, we donated memberships to many school fundraisers.  I implemented a database to track them, and after several years we started noticing the same school had the same winner each year.  Coincidentally, the winner was also the contact person requesting the donation.  That school was dropped as a recipient the following year and politely (and truthfully) told that we had hundreds of requests a year and had to rotate the recipients to ensure fairness.   

[NyaChan]

Reminds me of my HS teacher - She used to be a huge donor for a local fundraising race.  She'd have all us students drum up money and support, donate the money, take the awesome prizes like a big screen tv and then give us the hats and t-shirts that came with it.

[jedikaiti]

I've been involved in a few auction fiascoes (as the prize donor not the bidder/winner) and I am not surprised that this happened. All too often a charity fundraiser degenerates into backbiting and ridiculous entitlement - when the whole point is supposed to be about giving to others!

I don't know what it is about charity auctions that turn people into gimme pigs. When we ran a party business together, my friend and I came to loathe the "auction parties" - we had done them for publicity but quickly realized NOT WORTH IT and NEVER AGAIN!

So yeah that's me ranty two cents...anyways, update plz?  *does Puss n Boots eyes*

Any good stories to entertain us while we wait for updates?

[Softly Spoken]

I've been involved in a few auction fiascoes (as the prize donor not the bidder/winner) and I am not surprised that this happened. All too often a charity fundraiser degenerates into backbiting and ridiculous entitlement - when the whole point is supposed to be about giving to others!

I don't know what it is about charity auctions that turn people into gimme pigs. When we ran a party business together, my friend and I came to loathe the "auction parties" - we had done them for publicity but quickly realized NOT WORTH IT and NEVER AGAIN!

So yeah that's me ranty two cents...anyways, update plz?  *does Puss n Boots eyes*

Any good stories to entertain us while we wait for updates?

  Wellllll I suppose they should go in that "Special Snowflake" thread but let's see...

We hosted themed children's parties and sold party "packages" - the basic Silver and then the Gold with the extra bells and whistles. We donated a Silver Party package to a nearby school to get our name out there and make good community PR. Then the mom who won it calls and it's special requests out to wazoo. Basically trying to get us up to Gold without paying any extra money. With the rental of the place where we held the parties our profit margins were pretty non-existent - we rationalized the auction parties as write-off/publicity/ad expense but quickly realized that dealing with the entitlement of the parents who got them wasn't worth it. The kids were usually great (or at least managable and if all else failed easily intimitated ) - it was the parents who were high maintenance terrors. I think the last straw was the auction winner who brought in twice as many people as has been agreed on and tried to turn it into an adult party, when the adults were just supposed to drop the kids off. Our little party house filled to twice the maximum capacity and everyone griping to us that there wasn't enough parking, seating or party supplies - my friend (who owned the business with her mom) was this close to making a bunch of kids orphans that day!

I've honestly blocked out most of them but I remember we would flag scheduled parties as dangerous - i.e. "oh crud, this one's an Auction Party" and then brace ourselves. I would watch my friend answer the phone: "Hello? What's that? You won one of our parties at your school's raffle?" *looks at me and mime's shooting herself in the head.* Oh that's wonderful let me see what we have available..."

Oh yeah, pushy entitled parents = fun times.

[Eden]

I had a dream about the Turkey Thief last night! I really don't remember the details but it was something like she inadvertently outed herself to me and I believe I called her out on it. It was very therapeutic and I wasn't even involved in the incident! I highly recommend dream confrontations. They are fantastic.

[Stormtreader]

So did the OPs sister ever go back to the church to ask what the heck went on with her missing dinner?

[JenJay]

Per GN's profile, she hasn't been back on eHell since 11/27, shortly after her most recent update. Hopefully she's just busy and will update us when she next hops back on the forum.

[nalapuppy]

At my last job at a zoo, we donated memberships to many school fundraisers.  I implemented a database to track them, and after several years we started noticing the same school had the same winner each year.  Coincidentally, the winner was also the contact person requesting the donation.  That school was dropped as a recipient the following year and politely (and truthfully) told that we had hundreds of requests a year and had to rotate the recipients to ensure fairness.   

It could be possible that nobody else was interested in that prize, so the donor bought it each year so it wouldn't be wasted.  Ok, not likely....just attempting to think positive on this.    There are so many selfish greedy people out there.

[Softly Spoken]

Checked back for an update and was thinking to kill time: anyone have a best/worst/funniest thing every 'won' at an auction or raffle?

The best one my dad got at my grade school silent auction - free dessert every month for a year by this lady who was an awesome baker.  The last thing she did was a cheesecake that a) introduced grade school me to cheesecake and b) spoiled me by making me a cheesecake snob forever! *lost in delicious memories* The thing was almost a foot tall... *yum*...

[greencat]

I can't think of a "best" thing I've won from a raffle before, but I won a misspelled t-shirt once...

[Venus193]

I donated something that got a nice amount of money for a charity auction in my office (in 2000).  My department decided to auction off media tzochkes to the rest of the agency and donate the proceeds to our pro bono client's organization.

A media sales rep gave me a Margarita Kit, which consisted of a heavy pitcher, two seriously oversized stemware glasses, a two-liter bottle of Margarita Mix, and a two-liter bottle of Jose Cuervo.  This was packed with hay in a nice wooden box.  Someone in the art department won it for $100, which might have been what it would have cost at retail.