Shake That Tin, I'll Donate

When it comes to requesting for donations in a cup, I've never seen it done in such a way as I have here. Folks from Salvos would actually wait at the traffic lights at intersections and request for donations from stationary vehicles waiting for the lights to go green. Drivers and/or passengers would wind their car windows down, and pop in some coins. An ingenious idea, if you ask me. Better than placing one fellow at the top of the escalator, and another one at the bottom of the same escalator shaking their money tins.

I've always felt compelled to pop in a coin or two in situations like this. Proper charity organisations only, of course, such as the Salvation Army, Red Cross, etc. As a former member of the Red Crescent Society back in secondary school, it's an annual ritual for all members to embark upon a shaking-the-money-tin-and-request-for-donations day, which is formally known as the Flag Day.

To be honest, I've always hated this practice. I never saw the need to have to flood shopping centres with hundreds of Red Crescent Society members from the whole state simply to request for donations on a weekend. People who honestly wanted to donate money to such charitable organisations would find a way to do so. Instead, the public felt harassed by us young 'uns, running after them, asking for a donation.

There were times when I was called a beggar to my face when I politely requested for a donation. It was humiliating. Just to escape this, I prepared some coins of my own, dropped them in, and hung out at McDonald's at Komtar with some friends until it was time to return the money tins.

It wasn't easy asking for money like that, and one had to develop a thick skin for it. As such, even after I left school, come Flag Days or anytime a person from such organisations requested for a donation, I always found a way to drop in some money.

It's not just for charity. It's also for those who have to brave cruel words just to get a few coins in their tins.