Get woke, go broke. That’s a modern expression that proves itself out time and time again. Can you spell Bed, Bath and Beyond after they dumped “My Pillow”? Sucks to be an employee of Bed, Bath & Beyond Belief today.
So imagine a local charity in Central Illinois. One that for thirty years had received five figures of support from the local firefighter union suddenly saying, “no thank you” to their money. Why? Because the money was raised via an icky gun-related fundraiser.
WGLT has the story of the smoldering bridge:
The president of the Normal firefighters union says they will find a new beneficiary for proceeds from their gun raffle, after The Baby Fold raised concerns and distanced itself from the annual fundraiser.
The Normal Firefighters Local 2442 has done the raffle for about eight years and, most recently, has sent the proceeds to The Baby Fold as part of its Christmas Rescue Run. It’s marketed as a gun raffle — with one gun raffled off per day in February, including semiautomatic rifles and pistols — though winners are, in reality, given cash or gift cards to sporting goods stores.
The Baby Fold recently heard some complaints from the community about the raffle, said Aimee Beam, vice president of development and public relations at The Baby Fold. Beam said she wasn’t personally aware of the raffle until recently and that the organizations don’t coordinate it together.
“It allowed me to have good conversations with those guys, and I think their heart was in the right place thinking they were doing something good for kids and families, and it allowed me to explain a few things to them that they hadn’t really thought of,” Beam said.
Firearms recently became the No. 1 cause of death for children in the U.S., surpassing motor vehicle deaths and those caused by other injuries, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“They know The Baby Fold will not participate in or take any proceeds from a gun raffle,” Beam said.
That will show that donor, huh? Many folks, myself included, are pleased to hear that the Baby Fold is so well-heeled they can tell long-term donors that their monies aren’t needed.
I reckon that means they won’t need any C-notes from me this year either. Note to self, send another couple of hundred bucks to the Second Amendment Law Center on behalf of The Baby Fold. And then email The Baby Fold a copy of the receipt at publicrelations@thebabyfold.org. Be sure to carbon copy Aimee Beam, their VP of Development and Public Relations at abeam@thebabyfold.org, along with Diane Schultz, their President and CEO at dschultz@thebabyfold.org. Nothing like killing two birds with one stone.
As for the Normal Firefighters… talk about burning a bridge with the local fire department. A 30-year relationship up in smoke. Nice job all of you woke social justice warriors running The Baby Fold.
The Normal Firefighters union has a massive “every day in February” gun raffle where they sell about a thousand $20 tickets. They net about $10,000 which they, until this year, have donated to the Baby Fold in Bloomington-Normal.
Not only has The Baby Fold shot themselves in the foot with the Firefighters, I know a number of the local police and fire unions have donated to The Baby Fold for many, many years. I suspect those relationships now stand in jeopardy as well.
Get woke, go broke.
Never heard of anything called “The Baby Fold.” What a name. I guarantee they won’t see any of my charitable contributions. F ’em.
Several years ago, Crisis Nursery and the CASA child court advocates in Urbana pulled the same “logic” by refusing funds that were going to be raised by gun raffles. I was in a charitable organization at the time that used gun drawings to raise funds for local benefactors. Too bad, gun drawings generally are able to raise funds readily, especially for worthy benefactors. Gun enthusiasts always like to get a firearm for a $20 ticket. Call it “braggin’ rights”, I love and still have my $10 Glock semi-auto 40cal. pistola.
If I have to live in Illinois, I love living in a county where the Sheriff holds a gun raffle for an AR platform rifle to raise money for his re-election campaign. We don’t do woke here.