by Jay Kerner, Source Publications

I wish I could take credit for the success of our “Joe of the Year” contest. Ideas are my thing after all, unfortunately while I have certainly been blessed with quantity out the proverbial wazoo, the ability to discern quality has always been more of a challenge. It was truly a joint effort that pulled off our best promotion to date. Thanks again for all of your letters, emails and calls.

It was one of those letters that set me off on my latest tangent. Isn’t it funny how sometimes just one little thing can be the impetus for a much, much larger thing? We received the following letter last week, and I am printing it just the way it came. It got me to thinking and after you read it, I’ll share our plans:

 Joe Money Talks by Coopersview

Have you ever thought how much help we could give to a good cause if everybody in town donated just one dollar? You could help local charities; you could make sure all the kids in our community had a good meal every day; you could join together and make this town a better place to live.

We’ve all seen the TV ads to help children in foreign countries for as little as the price of a cup of coffee a day. Don’t get me wrong this is noble, but how about not moving so far from home and helping our community? We have several agencies in town that know what the needs are for this area. One dollar alone doesn’t seem like much, but if you put that with another dollar and another dollar that could make a difference to one person and another person and another person. I know the possibility to help others is endless. And unlike the charities that help foreign countries and other global agencies you could actually see where your one dollar is going. I guess I would just like to see all the people who need help get it. There are so many it would be hard to decide where to start.

So far I have more questions than answers.

Wouldn’t you like to see what one dollar from your pocketbook could do? Wouldn’t you like to make a difference in your community? Wouldn’t you like to help local charities meet or exceed their expectations? These thoughts always come to me when I watch the news and they talk about the budget (insert laugh here). I would still be working two jobs if I spent money the way the government does. Heck, who am I kidding, I’d be living in a box!!

Other questions that haunt me are how do you organize something like this? Who do we trust to collect the money? How do you get the word out on what you are doing? Who is in charge of deciding who gets the money? How often do you think you could collect a dollar from everybody and not be considered greedy? Look, more questions.

If we could get everybody, and I do mean everybody to give a dollar, how much money would that be? About $72,000.00 (we wouldn’t expect children under the allowance earning age to pay.) That would make a nice donation to a good cause. Wouldn’t you love to see the look on a person’s face when you handed them 72,000 one dollar bills? I would!! Any of the charitable organizations would be thrilled to receive even half that amount. This could go a long way to help your local brother or sister who just happens to be down and out. I bet if you could get interest going in town, you could snag up the rural areas and more dollars could be collected which in turn means more people could be helped. I dare to dream we could go state wide.

I think a great time to start this would be around Valentine’s Day. The day of love (not really, but the card company wants you to believe that.)  We could all use love and you can never have too much. Think of the feeling you get when you help somebody that isn’t expecting it. It would be a great lesson to pass onto your kids about helping others. They like to be helpers. This could be a lesson about giving that would last them a lifetime. We could be forming the next generation of charity minded citizens.

The city wants us to buy local, so why not donate local. This one dollar would not be taking anything out of the city’s pockets and it would be a chance for us to show how much we care about our community. We are unique in that. We are passionate about our schools, festivals and local, unique businesses. We want to be an individual town and not lumped with the surrounding metropolitan areas. This would be a great example to set for all who come to visit our town. Just imagine what the sign could say “The brothers and sisters of Joe Town raised over $72,000.00 in 2008 and helped the (insert charity name here) keep hope alive.”

This could be like the movie “Pay It Forward” and we could literally, pay it forward. We could even have a festival to celebrate. We do love a good festival. We could change the theme yearly (if this caught on) to acknowledge the worthy cause we were helping. Of course the festival planning and all the activities would have to be donated as not to distract from the real reason why we are collecting one dollar from everyone. Even though we love a good festival, we should probably forgo the party and just get a sign or have The Regular Joe cover the story with a picture in their paper.

I have my dollar ready and will even loan my husband a dollar to make our donations to help Joe Town. I would consider doing this every year around Valentine’s Day and might even be tempted to do it again at Thanksgiving (this happens to mean exactly what it says.) Think of all the families that could be adopted with one dollar. If you could help a family for $50.00 and we raised $72,000.00, we could help 1,440 families (I used the calculator and feel confident about my numbers.) Would this make a difference? Could you afford to do this once a year? Twice in one year? Ugh the questions!!

So now I put it to you. Can this be done? Who wants to start? Maybe you have a better idea. I would love to hear it, or read about it in The Regular Joe.

Have your dollar ready, we can make this happen.

So there you go, you can see how something like this would set my brain to churning. I’ve been talking it up around the office and here’s what we came up with;

First, we love the idea of collecting one dollar from everyone in town. That’s how we came up with the name of our promotion, “Joe Gives A Buck.” We’re going to put collection jars that look like giant coffee mugs (get it?) anywhere that advertises with us or distributes the paper, and ask the public to do just that, give a buck. Our goal will be to raise $72,000 for a local charity. Will we hit it? Who knows, but I tell you, after answering the phone and tallying votes from the JOTY contest I won’t make the mistake of underestimating our readers again.

Next, we have to decide who gets the money. What we want you to do is nominate the charity of your choice. Write or email and tell us why your organization should get the cash. Be persuasive. A committee will choose three candidates for a final vote from our readers which will be announced in the next issue. Then we’ll leave it up to you to choose the winner, which will be announced in the March 6th issue.

Finally, on Saturday March 8th we’ll bring all the collection jars to a central location to count and award the cash. We thought maybe we’d ask our bank to help. All three organizations will get something, as we’ll split the money 70-20-10 based on the voting. Who knows maybe we could get a band to play and make it a party.

Now remember, we’re talking genuine, registered, non-profit organizations here. I’ve already been told Kerner’s Home for Promiscuous Super-Models, though a worth cause, will not be eligible.

Tell us who you think should get the cash. Write or email your nomination with all the reasons they should be considered. It can be the local office of a national charity, or a small organization desperate for funds. We’ll let the readers decide, and we’re counting on the fact that our community will once again step up to the plate (or cup) and prove that indeed, “Joe Gives A Buck.”