Extreme Makeover, private charity edition

[KBCraig]

I just finished griping at Mary, because she usually calls me at work on Sunday evening, telling me (between sobs) about Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. We TiVo it, so I can watch it when I get home. While I always appreciate the show, I'm seldom as affected emotionally by it as is she.

She didn't warn me tonight. Tonight, I walked in and got blindsided by the show, and we were up until 4 a.m. watching the double episode.

Camp Barnabas

Yes, they're 501(c)(3). If anyone thinks that detracts from their worth as a private charity, please step up so I can punch you in the head.

Lord, what lovely people. What good work they do. My particular soft spot is for the developmentally disabled. Many moons ago, when I was hustling my butt off driving a soft drink route, one of my stops was the Howard County Development Center in southwest Arkansas. The door through which I made my deliveries brought me into contact with the mentally retarded young adults, from early teens to age 30 or above. There were also so clients who suffered cerebral palsy, muscular distrophy, or muscular sclerosis. When I stepped through the door and was greeted with a rousing, "Mr. Pepsi man! Mr. Pepsi man!", My heart and face glowed for the rest of the day. I always gave away sodas at that stop, even if I exceeded my "chips" quota. I didn't care if I had to pay out of my pocket.

Camp Barnabas is a good model for private charity. No doubt, most of their campers rely on some (or much) government support for basic care. It would be good to reduce that government involvement to the minimum degree by offering alternatives.

I think I've found our "direction" for volunteerism in NH.

Kevin

[JonM]

There's something similar much closer to the Free State see: http://www.campsunshine.org/ -- though they deal with terminally ill children rather than developmentally disabled.

Camp Sunshine supports children with life threatening illnesses and their families.  The camp has the distinction of being the only program in the nation whose mission is to address the impact of a life threatening illness on every member of the immediate family—the ill child, the parents, and the siblings.  Since its inception, Camp Sunshine has provided a haven for over 16,000 individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds.

My Kiwanis club, along with the rest of the ones in New England have donated much money to them.  They're still selling bricks for their walkway.

[Michael Fisher]

I just finished griping at Mary, because she usually calls me at work on Sunday evening, telling me (between sobs) about Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. We TiVo it, so I can watch it when I get home. While I always appreciate the show, I'm seldom as affected emotionally by it as is she.

She didn't warn me tonight. Tonight, I walked in and got blindsided by the show, and we were up until 4 a.m. watching the double episode.

I LOVE that show!!!  I've only seen it once or twice because I avoid TV, but their good deeds are completely amazing.   

Camp Barnabas

Yes, they're 501(c)(3). If anyone thinks that detracts from their worth as a private charity, please step up so I can punch you in the head.

No charity is perfectly libertarian.  All charities for children I've found are 501c3 and accept government funds, but I still volunteer and donate goods to these charities regularly.  I explain to them that it would be better for everyone involved if they would reject government funds.  They listen to their volunteers because we've had several discussions on the topic.   

Lord, what lovely people. What good work they do. My particular soft spot is for the developmentally disabled. Many moons ago, when I was hustling my butt off driving a soft drink route, one of my stops was the Howard County Development Center in southwest Arkansas. The door through which I made my deliveries brought me into contact with the mentally retarded young adults, from early teens to age 30 or above. There were also so clients who suffered cerebral palsy, muscular distrophy, or muscular sclerosis. When I stepped through the door and was greeted with a rousing, "Mr. Pepsi man! Mr. Pepsi man!", My heart and face glowed for the rest of the day. I always gave away sodas at that stop, even if I exceeded my "chips" quota. I didn't care if I had to pay out of my pocket.

Camp Barnabas is a good model for private charity. No doubt, most of their campers rely on some (or much) government support for basic care. It would be good to reduce that government involvement to the minimum degree by offering alternatives.

I think I've found our "direction" for volunteerism in NH.

Kevin

That's great news, Kevin!!!      I hope others follow your lead.  You two will add enormous value to your community.

[toowm]

This is the only show we watch with the kids. We Tivo it to avoid the "Desparate Housewives" promos.

[cathleeninnh]

Cam Barnabas and Camp Sunshine are definitely worthy of our attention. Neither took any government money or spent any contributions lobbying per their latest IRS filings.

As I have told Mike, it is rare to find charities that don't take government money. Smaller ones have a better chance, but their info is not always easily available.

Cathleen

[AlanM]

Strange coincidence... I asked a lady who bought a Powerball ticket tonight what she would do with the money if she won. She wants to start a home from disabled and troubled youth. A working farm. A place where the kids can learn to get close to nature and learn responsibility. Cool. 

[aworldnervelink]

Um, all is not rosy with that show:

Daily Dose
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October 17, 2005
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The grim reality of "reality TV," part two

As reluctant as I am to side with a booted reality show contestant, this borders on cruel and unusual punishment...

According to a New York Daily News article from a few weeks ago, the producers of a reality surgery-and-self-esteem show on ABC TV called Extreme Makeover are now being sued in L.A. Superior Court for literally ruining a woman's life - by rejecting her at the last minute after promising her a life-enhancing whole-body transformation as part of the show's run in the spring of 2004.

Now, you're probably thinking right now exactly what I did when I read the first paragraph of the article: How did simply leaving the woman with the face and body she was born with ruin her life?

Because they'd already taped the harsh, no-holds-barred comments her entire family and group of friends said about her natural looks - as the poor woman watched from behind one-way glass in the next room!

Of course, this was all part of the show: The people that know her say mean but true things about the way she looks while they tape her crying her eyes out and feeling sorry for herself. Then they transform her into a goddess over a 6-week period (or however long a TV half-season is) through surgery, diet, exercise, and a makeover, and everybody loves her because she's beautiful. And happily ever after, roll credits...

But here's where Extreme Makeover's producers went extremely wrong: After making her watch everyone who's supposed to love her for HER say the cruelest, most vicious things about the way she looks behind her back did they find out from the dental surgeon assigned to fix her deformed jaw and crooked teeth that the work would not heal in time for the grand finale episode - in which all the makeover candidates get unveiled to the oohs and aahs of both loved ones and the prime-time studio audience.

So they nixed her from the show and sent her packing back to Texas, just the way she was.

And that's when all hell broke loose. Keep reading, because what happened to this poor woman and her family because of this double-cross by ruthless TV executives is more shocking than anything they'd ever let you watch on a reality show...

Soon after the woman returned home, her sister committed suicide.

The lawsuit alleges it's because once she found out that her homely sib had been behind the glass in the next room, the now-deceased just couldn't handle the guilt of having said such horrible things about her - especially once the show's promise of beauty and self-esteem had been rescinded.

Whether this is the true reason for her suicide or not, we may never know. But according to the Daily News article (and the lawsuit), this much is true: She'd tried to focus on her sister's good points in the studio "interview" - but was coaxed by the show's producers into talking about her shame and embarrassment at having such an ugly sis growing up!

The eager execs also cajoled the woman's mother-in-law in a similar interview to confess that she didn't believe her son had married someone so unattractive.

Now, this ugly duckling is stuck not only with her plain looks and the fresh knowledge that everyone she loves is repulsed by her, but her grief over the loss of her sister as well (which she no doubt blames herself for). Beyond this, she's now burdened with raising the two children her sister left behind in addition to her own pair of tykes. And as if this weren't enough, the poor woman's nursing some major psychological issues that make her virtually a shut-in - venturing out to shop only in the middle of the night at 24-hour grocery stores, according to her lawyer.

If all of this turns out to indeed be true, and not some trumped-up play for an easy million or two from a high-profile lawsuit, what a disastrous human tragedy it will have turned out to be - and all for some ratings. And as much as I rail about frivolous suits, I almost hope this woman sticks it to ABC network good in a court of law - and better yet, on live TV.

Now that would be some reality programming worth watching.

Showing you the reality - even if it isn't pretty,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD

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To start receiving your own copy of the Daily Dose, visit: http://www.realhealthnews.com/dailydose/freecopy.html
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[KBCraig]

Um, all is not rosy with that show:

Completely different show.

Kevin

[Dreepa]

Um, all is not rosy with that show:

Also--- I don't have much sympathy for people who go on reality tv shows and then bitch about it.. come on you wanted to be on TV.  ANd we all know that Hollywood is full of slime.

[Dreepa]

This is the only show we watch with the kids. We Tivo it to avoid the "Desparate Housewives" promos.

I Tivo everything... I haven't watched live TV in over 3 years.

[polyanarch]

TIVO?

I don't even HAVE a TV.

My GF records Alais for me.  I watch it sometimes when they start to pile up. We watched the first 3 shows the other day.  That's the first TV I've seen since I watched the tape of the season finale last spring.