Sunday, May 26, 2013

And so the hard work begins

Like any new project, it was pretty easy to get Charity Hack started. Come up with the idea. Fine tune it by bouncing it off a few trusted friends. Set up this blog to explain it. Go on Twitter, Facebook etc to promote the ass off it. Job Done.

Except that's just the start. Initially I thought it would be amazing to get 5 charities applying to be part of Charity Hack and I'd be quite happy if only one group filled out the form. I was ready to go 'door to door' metaphorically and contact individual charities I know to ask them to come along on the day. Amazingly and thankfully that wasn't necessary. We had almost 30 Charity Hack registrations. That's amazing.

It's also a little bit worrying.

Charity Hack didn't cross the radar of even a fraction of the charities in Ireland. Most are too busy struggling to get through their day raising enough money (or not enough in a lot of cases) to keep their cause above water and hope that tomorrow is a better day. I worry about those. Not the ones who saw Charity Hack and thought it wasn't for them or that they didn't need it but for the organizations that are really struggling and are staring at fork in the road and don't know which way to turn. Could Charity Hack have helped them all? No it couldn't. We can only take 5 organizations on the 10th August. Maybe we can organize a second one and a third... But even then we'd struggle to even make the beginnings of a scratch on the problems out there.

This country is so full of amazing people, with huge hearts, who give so much for their causes and passions. They are working in charities, volunteering with sports clubs, shaking buckets, training our children, looking after our sick, protecting our environment. They stand up for what is right and for what they believe matters in the world. And, it doesn't matter whether we agree with their cause or not. Our country is better because people give of themselves for what they care about.

Where would we be without them? I hope we never find out.

So almost 30 organizations came across Charity Hack and thought that it could do something for them. They should be applauded, big or small, new or old, we can all benefit from a fresh set of eyes looking at our problems. Recognizing that we need a helping hand is a huge first step towards improving our future and hopefully for the organizations who take part in Charity Hack they're going to get the helping hand they need.

Right now we're reading through the application and trying to shortlist the successful organizations. This is not going to be easy and is sure to cause fights between the selectors.

They are all amazing organizations with incredible people doing just those things I've talked about above. They are struggling against the challenges they face to make our world a better place. To steal and edit from Whitman: As this powerful play goes on they are contributing their own verse.

Whether that final play is a tragedy or epic triumph is up to us.

Unfortunately though for Charity Hack we will only be able to select 5 organizations. I would dearly love to have all the applicants but space and the need for at least 5 Chackers for each organization makes it impossible this time.

I'm not giving up though.

If the 10th August is a success, who knows what the future holds and maybe, just maybe, Charity Hack can have it's own comma in the Play.

K

oh and if you want to know what the poem I'm butchered a line from was here you go


O Me! O Life!

BY WALT WHITMAN
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.


No comments: