in thinking some charity events ( paragliding in Paraguay, walking Great wall etc)

[HugoFirst]

are just peopel want to have a jollly and guilt everyone else into paying for it?
when they could jsut give their air fare and have done?

or is there more to these things ( lolling at mates H doing some kind of cross Kenya car hting)

[nethunsreject]

yanbu

put on a bear suit and run the marathon

[HugoFirst]

lol

Panda maybe

[HugoFirst]

LOOK - if you want to run to John O groats just do it. dont make me pay

[AgentZigzag]

Nobody's making you pay are they?

If they are you need to be onto the police about it.

[HugoFirst]

lol
you get the emails " ooh my crazee wife is involved in a 24 hr knittathon knitting wigs out of spaghetti for pygmy goats"

[ScaredyDog]

YABU

I think it's about someone doing something amazing that is a massive achievement, or sometimes just something that is great fun, while raising money for a good cause.

I've a friend who is cycling from Cambodia to Vietnam for a cancer charity. He's paying for the trip himself, any money he raises in sponsorship will go to the charity.

[BoffyMefferson]

I agree with you really OP. I want to do Cycle China next year but it is a cheek asking for sponsorship to fly little old me to China so unless I can raise most /all of the money myself I won't be going 'cos there is no way I can ask folks for cash for this..

[Pagwatch]

I had a woman at dds nursery come to my house and ask me how much I would sponsor her to go on her dream trip to walk the great wall of china.

When I asked her about the charity she didn't know anything about it
when I said no she asked me to get dh to take it to work because he must know rich people. Double

Twat.

[confuseddotcodotuk]

YANBU. I want to walk the Great Wall of China and walk to Macchu Picchu for charity but dislike the idea of going through a company as they take a certain amount/% for themselves from your sponsors. I'll probably end up doing it off of my own back to avoid it as it's disgusting that they do take the money and also that the participants don't pay much towards it themselves! I feel the same way about doing one of those conservation projects abroad, the company running it gets much more money than the charity you work with!

Again, YANBU.

[ENormaSnob]

yanbu

[nijinsky]

Agent ZigZag Nobody's making you pay are they?

In the case of my DP's mother, yes we were virtually forced to pay for her "holiday" to walk the Great Wall of China. We were strongly told that a contribution of several hundred pounds was "required". I'd quite like to walk the Great Wall of China myself one day, but only when I have saved up enough money to pay for it.

[AgentZigzag]

The cheeky begger nijinsky, no reflection on you, but I'd like to see someone try and 'require' me to contribute several hundred pounds for anything.

I've got a few buttons they could have

Did you stump up your share in the end?

[pointydog]

yanbu.

Some school kids were bag packing recently for their trip to Japan. I couldn't care less if they went to Japan.

[Honeybee79]

YANBU.

I'm constantly getting asked to sponsor people for stuff and I only choose to sponsor a few. Most people who have asked me don't even seem to know that much about the cause/charity they're supposed to be raising money for. I only sponsor people if there's a strong personal connection to the charity (sponsored my mate to run a marathon for Cancer Research after her Mum died of cancer) or they're doing something REALLY impressive like 10 marathons in 10 days. I don't sponsor people to walk things!

[nijinsky]

DP did. I refused. We got a one of her commandments by email, also saying that "since we were working in good jobs, we could afford it". She keeps making the point that she is retired (early retirement on final salary scheme from the public sector and not at all short of money).

My point is, its now become such an industry - I don't mind supporting charity but I prefer to pick ones which are fairly small and don't have the massive organisation that the ones that organise these trips abroad do. Or if she had been walking the Great Wall of China off her own bat, organising the logistics herself instead of turning up by bus with a tour guide!

[MadameCastafiore]

I am going to do a 7 day sponsored sunbathe on mauritius next year - will you all sponsor me????

[EggyAllenPoe]

My Bil is doing a sponsored cycle from lands-end john ograoats - personally, if that's his idea of a jolly, he needs counselling, not sponsorship....

But we did sponsor him, on that basis.
I am pleased TSC's man got a full £5k! well done him.

In a parallel universe i am the kind of person who does marathons. in this one i just think about it.

[southeastastra]

i went to a car boot whose proceeds are going towards bankrolling scouts trip to swaziland, why would they want to go to swaziland and what do they do there

[Jaspants]

YANBU.

My friend went on and on about how hard he was training to trek in Peru, months of spare time spent mountain climbing as well as giving up two whole weeks of his time to do it.

He caught me at a bad time and was a bit fecked off when I suggested that charity begins at home and if he'd given up "months of his spare time and two weeks holiday" doing something less glamorous like clearing litter / working in a residential home / doing night shifts in a soup kitchen / something more worthy, then I would sponsor him for that. Oddly enough he didn't want to do that as Peru was the trip of a lifetime

[HugoFirst]

Agree. Rugby club guiliting us into Inc raising for a TOUR. FFA. You want to tour entirely for yu own benefit then stump up

[AllGoneABitBobLazar]

YANBU. I really don't understand sponsorship - why should I give a stuff if you want to run a really long way?! I'm happy to give money to charity - but FGS, no more running, jumping, swimming...just sell me a nice samosa or something!

[LaWeasel]

Yes, please, bring back charity food! And bob-a-job day! Do something nice for me and I will give you cold hard cash.

Go on holiday and I will nod in a slightly interested manner and ignore you.

[Guitargirl]

YANBU - loads of people at work do this and go on and on about as though they are single-handedly keeping that charity afloat when what they are actually doing is going on a big jolly but one that they can feel smug about.

[ledkr]

yanbu=I may decide to do a sponsered lie in a beach all day and get pissed by night in Mexico-sponser me anyone?