Purchases for A Cause

We’ve all heard it before. At the end of a purchase whether it is at a grocery store, department store, specialty store, there is the most-guilty question any one could ask you. “Would you like to donate a dollar to this particular charity?” If you don’t do it, what will the cashier think of you? If you do decide to do it, how do you know that the money is going to that particular charity and not just into someone’s pocket? Well have no fear, there is a new growing trend that will allow you to feel charitable and know that the money is actually going to the charity.

The trend, nicknamed “Purchases for a Cause,” enables the customer to buy everyday necessary products in which a small portion of the profit goes directly to the charity. Certain charities such as The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Rock the Vote, Home4theHolidays, and The Livestrong Foundation have many sponsors and partners such as celebrities, stores, and companies which help them sell a variety of products in different places.

It sounds wonderful, and some shoppers are enthusiastic about the opportunity, such as Katie Zimmermann, wife, mother of two and self-proclaimed “shopping-extraordinaire.” Zimmermann constantly looks for products that support a charity. “If there are two products that are the same, and one is sponsoring a charity, I will buy the one sponsoring a charity.” For her the reason is personal. “When I buy something that supports breast cancer research it is like seeing my sister-in-law’s face right on the tag. She was diagnosed a couple years back and has been in remission for the last 18 months. If my couple of cents or dollars let’s just one family miss out on the pain that my family went through, that is perfectly fine with me!” Zimmermann also explained that often breast cancer research products are pink, which helps her pick them out because pink is her favorite color and the products “just jump off the shelves.”

Like Ms. Zimmermann, some celebrities are just as enthusiastic about the trend. MTV star, Carson Daly is on the “Passionately Pink for the Cure” Executive Board and has been helping the charity for years. Other celebrities such as Sean Combs, better known as “P. Diddy,” founded the charity “Rock the Vote” which promotes youth to vote and get involved in the country’s politics. Hilary Swank has recently joined the charity Home4theHolidays which promotes animal adoption before the holidays.

Not only have celebrities been catching onto the craze but new websites have appeared that promote charities. One of these websites is called “Goodsearch.com.” This particular site lets you choose which charity you would like to support, then every time it, they donates a couple of cents to that specific charity you have chosen. Another website is “Onecause.com” which lets the consumer pick a school or charity, then using a large service provider to buy their items, the provider gives a small percentage of each purchase to the chosen charity or school.

While it seems a lot of people are jumping on the charitable bandwagon, self proclaimed “bargain-hunter” Jen Parlin, college student, is not so keen on the trend. “It’s just another way for people to spend their money when they don’t need to.” Even though Parlin is an environmental law major, she refuses to buy into eco-friendly products because she believes they aren’t actually environmentally friendly. “Think about the packaging the items are in when they arrive to the store, also think about how the items are brought from the main facility to the store, I can put money down the trucks carrying them are gas guzzlers.” Parlin also described her feelings towards celebrities and charities. “It's obvious that if they seem like they are interested in helping it's to benefit themselves. Why don't they donate large sums of their vast funds?”

But that is just what some corporations are doing through these “purchases for a cause.” The Susan G. Komen Foundation says on their official website “Our corporate partners provide us with the opportunity to reach people where they live, work, and play. In addition to a financial contribution, each of these organizations have found a unique way to get their customers and employees involved in raising awareness and hope that we will one-day find the cures.”

Not only are the purchases increasing their financing, but they are also increasing knowledge about the cause and how their purchase made a difference in someone’s life. While the Susan G. Komen Foundation has a list of twenty plus corporations that they are partners with, the LIVESTRONG Foundation only has five corporations that directly help the charity. When interviewed, a LIVESTRONG employee pointed out that that Nike, the main corporate partner of LIVESTRONG, has donated over $80 million to the charity since 2004.

Nans Gordon, like Katie Zimmermann, is a mom and loves to shop. Although for Gordon to go shopping, she has to go through a process because her oldest son, Hunter, is autistic and lives by routine. “Everything is a process. We have to eat at the same time every day, if we give him a list of things that are going to be done; we have to do them in that order.” When asked about what “purchases for a cause” meant to her, Gordon’s face lit up.

Gordon then said in a soft voice, “I love seeing the puzzle piece on the back of people’s car, the Autism Awareness cup at Starbucks and when Kraft comes out with their puzzle-piece macaroni and cheese, it reminds me that I’m not alone, and that Hunter isn’t alone. There are others out there who understand me and there are people who care to fight for a cause.”

She's Not A Booze-Mule, She's Like An Old Lady

As she points her nerf-gun “Donatello” in her peers face, it is questionable if she is actually 21 years old. Jennifer Knight, a newly-transferred student to Roger Williams University (RWU), is only a freshman even though she is the age of a graduating senior.
She previously attended the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) located in Amherst, Massachusetts, took a few years off then started to apply to schools again. When Knight started to apply to schools for the second time she took her first college experience and sorted out what she did not like about her previous school. "I didn’t like that all of my classes were lectured styled with 200 students. It was a large problem for me. I just can’t work with that many people." Ms. Knight then created a list of smaller universities and colleges and was recommended Roger Williams by a sister’s friend. She applied then toured the school while her application was being reviewed.
After choosing to attend Roger Williams, Ms. Knight had to fill out a roommate survey. "One of main reasons I didn’t stay for the second semester at UMASS was because I’m not one to go out and party…and I was on the quiet side of campus, it definetly wasn’t quiet though. I’m like an old lady, I’m calm, I don’t like to act like a buffoon running up and down the hallway." On the roommate questionnaire she made it clear she was not tolerant to alcohol, which is probably why she ended up living in the “Add Nothing” Living Learning Community*.
"It was pure luck I am living here, I think it makes a big difference living here with people who have the same ideals about alcohol as me, even though I am 21 years-old." Ms. Knight is the only person above the age of 20 in the suite but it doesn’t seem to affect her at all. She has made a lot of friends through her suitemates in addition to the club meetings. She especially likes to spend time with Alexandra Haskins, her roommate.
Ms. Haskins commented "It’s amazing how compatible we are as roommates. I would have never thought that we would have clicked so much in such a short amount of time. Her quirks are starting to come out." Jennifer agreed. She admitted that she has bonded with her suitemates along with her roommate in a much shorter time than expected.
Since credits-wise she is a freshman, Ms. Knight was put in a upperclassmen dorm which she gladly accepted. "I am not the booze-mule. I refuse. I rarely drink and just because I’m old enough to buy doesn’t mean you can take advantage of me." It is a good thing she was placed with a suite full of sophomores because as of the end of this semester, she will be a sophomore as well. By next fall she plans on working on her junior year.
"I unexpectedly ended up liking Roger Williams a lot more than I would have ever guessed. My grades are back to what they used to be in high school and I have made a group of friends that I can hang out with and feel comfortable."

It all started with a couple of coupons and a dramatic mother. Tania Hurtado, a young 20 year old with a bright future, did not know this was the start to her current job. Although, most of her jobs have come in strange ways, she is not one to find a job in the classifieds and follow suit like everyone else.

Hurtado is currently a professional photographer for LifeTouch studios, located in Providence, Rhode Island. The way she got there is an interesting story. Her mother who had fallen ill a couple of years ago, made it a point that she “wanted to create memories” with her young daughter before (what she believed) was her time to die. They set up their first photo session, and afterward received a coupon. Hurtado, seeing a great opportunity to have a little fun while saving some money used the coupon and set up another photo session. Her second session was with the same photographer that shot the first session. The photographer seeing her potential, asked for her information, after the second session Hurtado, yet again received another coupon and used it. After the third time, Hurtado had built a strong relationship with this one photographer. “She just called me up one day and said ‘Do you want a job?’ and I was like ‘Where?’ and she said ‘With me!’” Hurtado exclaimed excitedly. Almost two years later, Hurtado has built a list of clients that prefer her to any photographer in the studio.

Not only has Hurtado built her own list of clients, but she is a official translator for the United States, which led to her internship at the Supreme Court. Even though she only translated documents, Hurtado learned a lot not only about the system, but about the people themselves. “It was a great experience, it was a lot of fun… (I learned) a lot about weed and cocaine and how (the defendants) were caught.” Even though she explained it was a great experience, it was definitely clear that it was not her ideal job and that she would not enjoy doing it in the future as a career. As for Hurtado’s future, her high school played a large part as to what she is doing now to prepare for her future.

“My high school never had tests and quizzes…we could do internships or college classes and I chose college classes.” Hurtado attended the famous Metropolitan Regional Career and Technological Center (also known as “The Met”) which is known for its progressive educational ideas in addition to its unconventional classroom techniques. Hurtado believes it helped her soar above and beyond her other peers who attended regular high schools. She had more hands-on experience in the job field and her classes were not set up as lecture style constantly, which enabled her and her classmates to learn more. Most students are “taught to the test” but Hurtado is one of the few lucky ones who was not taught to the test and is more successful than the average high school graduate is.

Even though Hurtado wasn’t born and raised in the United States, she is already making a name for herself. She is a bright young woman with large potential who will be successful in whatever career she chooses.

I was halfway through writing my "thoughts" about Representative Joe Wilson, when I looked up at my TV screen as Kanye West screamed "Taylor, I'm really happy for you. I'll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time ... one of the best videos of all time!" on the VMA's and all I could do was giggle. Boy, was he mad as hell. Just looking at CNN's top headlines makes me realize everyone is mad as hell. Representative Joe Wilson is mad because he thoroughly believes that President Obama lied in his Health Care Reform speech. Serena Williams is mad because she thought the judge was wrong.

Now, all three will probably "pay" for being mad. For Serena, quite literally she will pay (A fine of $10,500 for her outburst). Rep. Joe Wilson has already apologized to the public and to the president but his opponent has almost reached $1 million in donations since the incident. And Kanye, well, he was kicked out of the award ceremony and has lost thousands of fans (but the incident will probably boost his sales by the end of next week).

Our generation needs to be more angry, innocent people die every day just because they live in a war torn country whether they're involved or not, people starve everyday just because they can't afford it while we are gluttonous with our cabinets filled with food. I am mad as hell, why isn't anyone else?

Short Paragraph Assignment on "Waking Life"

Just one substantive paragraph drawing conclusions about the in-class exercise and the Waking Life clip. In both cases, think about what you learned about the origins of language. How does understanding semiotics, which for the purposes of this class we are defining as "the study of language as a sign system," apply to writing for mass media? What is the point Waking Life makes about using language to describe objects vs. concepts?


The word semiotics has a lot of to with mass media. When the ten o'clock news plays its stories, usually the camera is focused on the news-anchor with a small picture or drawing depicting the story in the top right hand corner. Also, in newspapers, on the front page it usually has the big headline of words across the top, with a large picture to understand the story which is either written beside or below the picture. Both of these communications use drawings, or symbols to represent what the story is about.

In the video, Waking Life, the woman talking explains how "words are symbols that are dead". How our society has come up with sounds or something tangible to replace to signify words that are objects, but how feelings such as frustration or love don't have anything tangible or a specific sound to understand what they truly mean. There is no real true way to understand what the person means when they talk about how frustrated they are because when the listener hears it, they tie the word "frustration" to their own memories.