Co-worker lost pet, some of us want to help her out

[Lexophile]

This is an odd situation and I wanted to put it out there and see what you guys think we should do. A co-worker of mine (I'll call her Abby) had to have her cat put to sleep today. The cat fell ill early last week and has been at the vet's ever since, incurring all kinds of bills that Abby cannot now afford. Several of us here would like to help her out, and we know that there are others in the office who would give if they knew the situation. I am 99 percent sure that Abby would be grateful for the gesture, as she is going through a very rough time right now and I know that she has accepted this type of help before. Does anyone else have any experience with this? It seems a bit tacky to walk around soliciting contributions for this kind of thing, but I know there are others who would want to help her out if given the chance. How would I go about doing this?

[duhrich]

I know how hard it is to go through that situation - it's very kind of you to want to help out.  If you have internal e-mail, you could email the specific people you think might be interested and just let them know the situation and say something like "if you are interested, please let me know by....." so you know if people are really going to help.

Otherwise, I guess you would just have to mention it in person or leave a note to those you think would want to help.

Good luck!

[nonesuch4]

I would pass the word, if anything.  I would also be very, very careful with this.  This is just the sort of thing that can get out of hand:  where some one suffers a loss, and a collection isn't taken up, and then that person ends up feeling slighted.  I've known folks to which this happened, ironically, one woman was first in line to donate to when her colleagues took up collections.

[Slartibartfast]

Definitely spread the word, and I suggest make it as anonymous as possible.  If there's a secure place, maybe have people put cards/donations in a large envelope on their own time, and pick it up after a few days?  That way people can donate cash if they want, or just a card if they want to show support but no financial contribution, or just quietly not participate if they don't want to.