It is a dull, drizzly gray
day out today. I am tempted to crawl
back into bed (which would be ridiculous, since I only got out of it at 2:15 pm….). But instead I will think about YESTERDAY, a
day that the sun shone and people reminded me that there is good in the world.
For 4 or 5 weeks I have been
writing a daily poll on a piece of bright paper and taping it to a corner
across from our house. The polls have
asked “important” questions, such as, “Carrots:
Raw or Cooked?”; “Glitter: Shiny,
glorious goodness or The world’s most horrible craft supply?”; Elsa or Anna?”;
and “New Olympic Event: Eating the most
marshmallows or Holding your breath the longest?”. Normally
by the next morning around 40 people have voted.
Every day I watch people
come up to the corner, stop, read (and often smile) then vote as the poll
instructs them to with a rock or stick. The pile of rocks and sticks has grown since
the polls started, and there are 2 random car parts that must be leftovers from
a crash that people use to vote with, too.
Because of Covid, most people use their foot to wiggle their voting piece
into place. Many voters take a photo of
the poll before continuing their walk or jog.
It gives me great joy to
see people stop and get involved, and I love popping across the street on
workdays between meetings to see how the votes are going. In short, I enjoy these polls as much as the
passersby do (if not more).
I have been thinking about
trying to introduce a poll that did more than ENTERTAIN. A poll that might make a bit of a difference in
the world. So yesterday, a sunny Saturday,
I posted this:
I got up early (for me)
and had the poll on the corner around 8:45 am.
The first $5 Venmo match popped in before 9:00 am! I was delighted!! Then, around every hour, sometimes two,
another Venmo donation would pop in.
The experiment didn’t raise
as much as I had hoped – with all of the photos taken of the polls each day I thought
maybe someone’s Instagram followers might pitch in – but in the end we raised
$92.90 for the Arlington Food Assistance Center! Almost $100!!
I think that’s quite a feat, don’t you?
The check has been written and the donation will be mailed to them
tomorrow, along with an explanation of how it came to be collected.
The day reminded me of a compelling
quote by Helen Keller. She said, “Alone
we can do so little; together we can do so much”.
Indeed. It’s so true.
My $5 donation would not have done much to feed neighbors in our
community that are out of work because of the pandemic. But because others were willing to pitch in, maybe
our pooled money can fill a grocery bag for a family in need.
P.S. – the final tally for
the poll was 23 people voted that they WOULD be willing to match my $5 donation,
12 people voted that they WOULD NOT.
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