If you are interested in charity work, then you will realise how hard it is to come up with new ideas for helping people or collecting money, especially if you are on ‘the committee’.
Not everybody agrees with charity work, imagining that governments should take on the function of charity worker, but no one can deny that governments are not doing enough, so people and charitable associations have to step in.
As a supporter or as a charity worker, you obviously have the right to choose whom you support. A hundred years ago, middle class charity workers attempted to help the local poor; then after the Second World War, charities started searching further afield and Africa and other places became the focus of their assistance.
Nowadays, the cycle has gone full circle for a lot of people and they are beginning to look to the local underprivileged again. The old expression that ‘Charity Begins At Home’ appears to be ringing true with people again. So what could you do to assist the local underprivileged?
The YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, USA, has come up with a fresh concept. They discovered that numerous individuals bought at least one swimming costume every year. Those individuals might keep them until the next year, if they particularly liked them, but they would still buy a new swimming suit every year.
The thing is, that people hang onto their old swimming costumes until one day, they find them at the back of the draw and it occurs to them to toss them out. Sometimes, for ladies, the top half will break – a strap or the clasp – and they are left with a pair of bottoms. Men are inclined to hang onto their bathers for years.
At the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, they resolved to begin a campaign to collect all the old swimming costumes, jumble them all up and invite parents and kids in to choose a ‘new’ swimming costume.
Many of the kids that turned up, especially the girls, had never had a swimming costume before – they had always worn cut down jeans and a t-shirt.
Now, there are several ways you could go about this, once you have collected your boxes of swimming costumes. You can attempt to make sets for girls – tops and bottoms that match – or you can simply throw them all together and let individuals have the fun of matching up a two article swimming costume.
If you are trying to raise money for something like school books or a new church roof, then you could make a fixed price per swim suit. However, if you are attempting to attract adults or kids to your establishment – say a Sunday School or a local community centre – you could place a promotional leaflet in with each costume when it is bagged.
You could also have volunteers standing about prepared to give fashion advice or you could sell tea or coffee and homemade cakes. Whichever way you look at it, this is a very clever idea for helping people acquire an affordable/free swimming costume and get your concept over.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now involved with Speedo Swimming Costumes. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Swimwear For Big Busts.