This is a fundraiser

I have to tell this story because this is really bugging me.

I organized a raffle to raise money for my son's travel basketball team. I had a contact with a local electronics store who sells lots of big screen TV's. I asked if they would donate a TV as a grand prize for the raffle. They very nicely agreed to do so. And to deliver the TV to the winners house and set it up to their DVD, VCR etc. They one they agreed to donate was a 34" flat screen HDTV valued at $1400.00

All went well with the ticket sells. We had a great event where we drew the winners name. We sold just under $2,000.00 worth of tickets. The winner was contacted and the TV was to be delivered on Saturday.

The delivery man arrives and the winner proceeds to have a fit. Telling the delivery guy that the TV delivered to her is not what she won. She was told she was getting a "Plasma" big screen flat tv that would be mounted on her wall. I have no idea why she thought this, but she was wrong. So, she was rude to the delivery guy. Then she and her brother called the store and harrased the store manager. He hung up on them. To make maters worse, they sent the TV back to the store.

Through all of this, nobody bothered to call me and ask a question about this. I used my contacts to get this donation, I knew the serial number of the prize and that it was a $1400.00 TV moniter, not a $5000.00 plasma flat TV. No, they'd rather harrass a busy store manager on a Saturday during the Christmas shopping season to complain about a raffle PRIZE that they didn't even pay for.

What gets me is the winner spent $5.00 on raffle tickets to win this prize and pitched a fit because she misunderstood what she won. And instead of being grateful for the prize, harrases people and sends the TV back to the store. WTF??!!

Now, who would be the winner who has created all of these problems you ask? None other than the sister of the assistant executive director of the kids sports league!! Somebody who's name shouldn't have been entered in the contest and someone who should know better. This was about rasing money for kids, not about what you could win for a $1.00 ticket price. He and the executive director have made the biggest stink of all about this. They mispoke about the prize, not me. But, I look like boo boo the clown to my now very pissed off donor. A man who is a multimillionaire who may have been willing to make cash donations in the future.

Now, I have to apologize to my donor and we've lost the opportunity to work with this person again. And it also effects two other potential HUGE donors I may have gotten to give us some really big money. I understand why it is so difficult to get businesses to help and make donations. They don't want to be bothered.

The biggest loser of all is the kids. And none of these ghetto ass adults seem to understand that.