Dad, are we poor?

TESTING A PROOF OF CONCEPT

I feel I’ve asked a lot from my customers in the past and you have always stepped up. You have bought my wine in an effort to make this world just that little bit better, and I’m hoping you can spare me two minutes because I have an idea I need to run by you. 

I've always worried about how much of an impact we actually make, and my guts are telling me this idea might be more impactful than anything we've done before. But I may be wrong. Today I'm going to find out.

'DAD, ARE WE POOR?'

Over the long weekend I bought my daughter a pair of ‘new’ runners. She’s is growing up fast and her feet are now bigger than her various cousin’s, whose hand-me-downs she has always worn. 

Betty never asks me for anything. She knows we’re not rich and while these shoes only cost $35, I could tell she was nervous about wanting them. I could also see that she was excited about having something new that she got to choose herself.

It wasn’t until our drive to school the next day that she instigated a chat about money. I love our drives together, because that is where our most important conversations occur. 

Something had been sitting uncomfortably with her overnight and so she nervously asked... 'Dad, are we poor?'

I assured her that while we are not rich, we are very far from poor. Her hand-me-downs have all been really nice clothes, so it just makes sense to use them.

I went on to explain that there are people so poor that they can’t afford a $35 pair of shoes. That explanation probably means very little to a girl who has only ever worn hand-me downs, so I thought I'd try again… 'There are people so poor they cannot take their children to the movies.' 

Bammm! 

This one caught her attention.

‘What, never?’ She asked.

‘Never’ I said. 

‘Not even at Christmas?’. 

‘No, not even at Christmas.’

The car went silent as she processed this information. Going to the movies is one of the things we love doing together and I could see her struggling with the concept of never going again. Finally she spoke.

‘Don’t their parents have a job?’ She asked. 

I explained that some people cannot work. Some people have lives that are much more difficult than ours and that there are people who have been dealt such horrible hands that we will never understand what their lives are like. 

‘Do their children understand? She asked. This was a hard question for me to answer so I kept it as simple as I could, ‘I think so’, I said. 

The mood in the car got really dark and in an act of self preservation as only a child can do, Betty asked if she could check on her farm. Keen to lift the mood, I said ‘yes’ and her thoughts turned to growing corn and building barns in an innocuous little game on my phone.

I was left thinking. And this is the thought I want to run by you.

Up until now we have mainly supported big causes with big impacts. Please don’t get me wrong, I love this, but what if we could also come together and support a micro cause for one weekend?

And what if we could give a child a ‘first’ experience? Something all their friends at school take for granted. 

This is me fleshing out an idea, but what if going to the movies was just the start? It would be so achievable for us to do. A few cases of wine would take a small family to the movies, get them lunch and pay for their train or taxi fares there and back.

What if we could send two families?

And did you know there are children out there who are actual carers for their parents? What if we could send one of them to the footy for a day and pay for someone else to step in and give them a break?

These are all small, simple, achievable impacts and we're going to start with the movies.

I've set up a fundraising page and I've called it Big Little Impacts. This is a proof of concept test and whatever we manage to raise, we are going to find a suitable charity and get that money to a deserving family.

I would love for your help. Whether it's buying some wine through the link below or sharing this email and the link with other like minded people.

Over the coming weeks I will report back to you the results, and in the week's that follow, we will partner with a charity (or even begin one from scratch) and tell you who received the money and what they went to see. We might even try to get some businesses like Hoyts involved.

Please click on the link below. Let's see if this idea has legs and let's help a child do for the first time, what is normal for all their friends.

Thank you

David

(Please be sure to select Big Little Impacts as your chosen cause before proceeding to the checkout)