How Did the Second Harvest Food Bank Charity Drive Go?

Last month, I mentioned that the Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics (AHA!) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were in a (friendly) battle against Christian and Muslim groups on their campus in order to raise money for the (non-sectarian) Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin.

Well, the results are in! Looks like a lot of readers from this site deserve some applause for chipping in 🙂

… by the end of November AHA collected dozens of donations, ranging from $5 to $100, for a total of about $1500 in online contributions. At our weekly meetings leading up to Thanksgiving, AHA members themselves gladly coughed up several hundred dollars in cash.

That us led to a Grand Total of… $2,000 raised!

How amazing is that?

Chris Calvey of the AHA! points out that the group isn’t about to gloat about this. The “competition” was a win-win for everyone involved, including the religious groups. Hell, maybe in the future, the other groups can keep the race close so that more people will be encouraged to give.

"Just don't try to get figs out of fig tree when they're not in season."

NOGODZ20

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Trina

It’s wonderful to see how much was contributed – it’s so needed!
Wesley

Ah, AHA kicked their lilly asses. Good work to all three groups.
Wfbarnes

Any info on how much the christians n muslims gave through their churches?
Bob

That so unfair. Of course the Atheists would choose an atheist charity. What about all the money xtians gave to the Red Cross which will beb fairly distributed to anyone* who needs it.

* not including gays, mat require recipient to sit through a little proselytization. Atheist open to conversion always welcome.
Otto

It’s sort of adorable that the handwriting on the check is straggly print. I mean that genuinely – I’m someone who always brought home report cards in elementary school that were all As, and then an “Unsatisfactory” in penmanship. My checks as an adult sort of look like this – it does look a little goofy, but as long as it gets the job done, screw you, my handwriting will be exactly as bad as I’d like it to be.

Ugh, I should change over my accounts to the UW Credit Union. Really, the only reason I haven’t at this point is that I’m lazy.
Otto

I thought the Red Cross had a pretty good religiously-neutral track record. What am I missing?
Anonymous

The Red Cross is entirely secular
Dan

You mean giving that mostly goes toward the pastor’s salary, church upkeep, and curriculum to indoctrinate children? Before I deconverted I gave thousands of dollars to my church, and I know that no more than a few dollars of that went to people really in need. I genuinely could have given $50 to the food bank and made much more of a difference than the $12-15,000 I gave to my church spread out over my 6 years as a working student. What a waste; I really am ashamed.

This money was for real charity, and the Christians and Muslims should be commended for giving generously, not to convert people, but to help the less fortunate.