Passing the Hat

If you have attended any of our concerts this year then you know we have started a new tradition called Passing the Hat. In these days of economic uncertainty we want to do our part to keep our community strong and our fellow non-profits providing the services we all count on so much. I have always been impressed with the number of non-profit organizations Fairbanks has and supports, far more than other cities twice our size. This is one reason I love this place and will always call it home.

Passing the Hat started this year with the Breast Cancer Detection Center’s “Paint the Town Pink” campaign. It sounded like fun and we thought “why not participate?” So we did and Passing the Hat was born. We continued by passing the hat for Hospice, the Food Bank, the Armed Services YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Access Alaska. We have tried to keep this light. Just a mention in the program letter, the curtain speech and put some envelopes in the lobby to be used there or taken home.  Shine a light, lend some focus and maybe raise a few dollars for another good cause.

I confess, at the end of the evening, I’m cleaning up the lobby and looking with excitement to see how many envelopes I get to deliver the next day. Although I don’t open the envelopes to count, it has gone well — except for Access Alaska. When I called Doug Toelle, their development director, he didn’t have any remittance envelopes, so went to the effort of making some so we would have them. What can I tell you? I did the worst curtain speech of the year, and Doug went home with a single dollar. I really felt bad that he had so much trouble and expense with so little outcome.

The next concert we passed the hat for the Food Bank and I carried over a big stack of envelopes to Samantha the next day. Although I tried to remain philosophical, I still felt bad about Doug. I was thinking about it one day when the phone rang. It was Doug. He had just received a check, via one of our envelopes, for $2,000! That’s $2001 for Access Alaska!

Sometimes, one envelope is all you need, and I am grateful to that donor, but I still think that a little help from a lot of people is the way to go.

We would love your comments, ideas, suggestions and input on this project. If you have some thoughts to share you can email me at anne@fairbanksconcert.org.