This Rotarian had a change of heart about dreaded ‘coin toss’ fundraisers.

(by Susan Miller)

It’s a familiar sight, especially on pleasant weather weekends: orange vest-clad do-gooders, standing at intersections, holding out buckets near signs that announce they’re collecting spare change for one good cause or another. As a driver, I would often cringe at the approach to such a scene. What are they collecting for now? This is dangerous, it’s holding up traffic – and, darn it, I feel pressure to kick in!

And so it was that I found myself in the very position of collector on a recent warm Saturday morning. I would have preferred to be doing something – anything – else that day. Scrubbing the bathroom floor, vacuuming the family room or standing in the dreaded grocery line seemed more appealing than bumming cash on a street corner in my own home town.

But this was a project that my fellow Rotarians (of the Medford Sunrise Rotary) were involved with, and they asked me to help out. I could have found a reason to bail out, until they told me the cause for which they were collecting: The money raised from the coin drop would benefit the Scholarship Fund for the non-profit organization YMCA Camp Ockanickon, Inc. of Medford. It happens to be the place where I’m employed as marketing/communications director. And it happens to be for a cause that I strongly believe in: sending children to camp, those who couldn’t afford to go because of financial hardship. How could I possibly say no?

Despite the worthy cause and my connection to it, there was no kick in my step when I walked to the center of the Union and Main in Medford – protected somewhat by a thin layer of sunblock and buffered only by a single traffic cone and an A-frame sign describing the worthy cause. The vest I wore was stenciled with the words, “Rotarian at Work.” I held a royal blue bucket with a sign taped to it that said “Help send kids to Camp Ockanickon.” Ugh, I thought, fighting feelings of mild panic. I don’t want to stand in the middle of the street; this feels like begging. The hours ahead loomed long. I fully expected to be ignored or, worse yet, to incur the wrath of irritated drivers who would be less than pleased to see me (and my Rotarian cohorts around the corner) holding up traffic on a busy errand day.

Within the first minute, a woman stopped and put a fistful of change in my bucket. “Hey, thanks. That was so nice of you!” I stammered awkwardly, truly surprised at the gesture. Before I had a chance to register the positive encounter, another driver slid his window down and held out a dollar bill for my bucket. “Thanks for all you do,” he shouted. This went on continuously for the remaining hours I spent on that corner.

At times, I found myself hustling from car to car, trying to keep up before the traffic light changed to green. One man gave me a heavy Ziplock bag of quarters, dimes and nickels. So many people dropped in $20 bills that I lost count. Not only were people generous, many went out of their way to say nice, positive things about the Rotary and about Camp Ockanickon:

“My kids go to Camp Ockanickon. They love it,” one woman said, briskly peeling a five and five ones out of her wallet and dropping them in the bucket. 

“My daughter used to go to Matollionequay,” one man said, referring to the girls overnight camp at Ockanickon. HIs handful of coins landed dully, the sound muffled by a nice layer of paper bills at the bottom of the pail.

“I’m heading over to Ockanickon now to go kayaking,” a guy in an SUV said, as he handed me several bucks and some loose change. He has a yearly membership at Ockanickon, and uses the grounds frequently for biking, hiking and boating, he told me quickly. Another driver, a mom with several kids in the car, said that she, too, was heading to Cherokee Beach at Ockanickon to swim that afternoon. She had her kids drop their coins into the bucket from the backseat window.

“Hey, fellow Rotarian,” said a smiling man from the Medford-Vincentown Rotary, who was on his way to help with a fishing tournament that his Rotary was putting on that day. “Keep up the good work.”

A nice young man from the Harvest Coffee Roastery gave me his tip money after making a delivery at one of the local businesses. A woman taking a walk happened upon a $20 bill in a parking lot and threw it in my bucket rather than pocketing it. With each gesture of generosity, I felt so touched. At times, I was moved to tears. (Thank goodness I was wearing dark sunglasses!)

After a while, I noticed a few patterns to the coin drop gig. Almost everyone with a dog in their vehicle stopped and donated something, even if just a nickel or two. If I spotted a dog in the line of cars, I could almost guarantee that driver’s side window would open and a generous arm would jut out with a donation, and a furry head attached to a wagging body would greet me from the backseat. I’m not sure what this means, but I love the idea of it. No judgement here, but I also noticed that smokers often kept going without stopping to donate. (Cigarettes are expensive these days; I’m sure any spare change in the car was earmarked for that purchase.) I also noticed that generosity breeds generosity. There were a few dry spells – rows of cars queued at the light with drivers looking straight ahead, ignoring my existence. But once someone opened their window and made a contribution, nearly everyone in the line of traffic behind did the same. My own little anecdotal social experiment conducted in the heart of Medford!

Throughout the morning, Rotary President Norm Mackey, who with his wife Linda, worked the  far busier coin toss posts in the middle of Main Street, collected the proceeds in my bucket every so often so my arms wouldn’t get tired from the heavy load of coins. (Who knew I’d collect enough to weigh down my bucket!)  He and Linda knew the drill; they’ve been doing coin drops and other Medford Sunrise Rotary fundraisers for years.

On another busy intersection across town – at Taunton and Tuckerton roads – a few others from my Rotary stood on a concrete island and collected for the send-kids-to-camp cause, too. Jim Robinson, Brett Ledman and Paul Mosicki braved the heat and the traffic on that side of town for several hours that day.

For more than a century, YMCA Camp Ockanickon has provided a place for hundreds of thousands of children, parents and families to spend quality time in the great outdoors through its three camps, Ockanickon (overnight for boys), Matollionequay (overnight for girls) and Lake Stockwell Day Camp (co-ed). The Scholarship Fund helps provide opportunities for children from poor communities to attend camp free of charge. Often, the experience is life-changing for them.

Linda Mackey says she hopes that the June 18 collection would be enough to send 10 needy children to summer camp.

“We want to thank all the drivers who came through the two Medford locations and donated to this cause and were so gracious to us,” Mackey said. “If anyone would still like to make a donation to the Scholarship Fund for Camp Ockanickon, they can send it to Medford Sunrise Rotary, P.O. Box 1235, Medford, NJ 08055.” Or contact Suzette Belz at suzette@ycamp.org or 609-654-8225.