Explore ElizabethYarnell.com

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Health & Wellness Speaker
  • Food Sensitivities?
  • Shop
  • More…
Elizabeth Yarnell, Author, Innovator, Naturopath, Speaker
Rescue Your Health Today! 303-830-2665

There is so much to see! Go to blog navigation →

Or start with this most recent post:

Open letter to Oprah and Suze Orman

Posted on October 23, 2008 in Kids, Multiple Sclerosis | 65 Views | 12 Responses

Dear Oprah and Suze,

While normally I am a fan of both of you ladies, I happened to catch the tail end of the Oprah show yesterday (10/22/08) and was appalled by what I saw and heard counseled.

Jean
Jean

A mother, Jean, was asking for advice. Her 5th grader wanted to go on a school trip to Costa Rica. At 11 years old, this boy has been studying Spanish for a while and is almost bilingual. He has been looking forward to this special 5th grade trip for years. It cost about $2200.

The problem? The mother was carrying $20,000 in debt on her credit cards.

Suze Orman
Suze Orman

Suze Orman said, No way you can pay for that trip. He simply cannot go.

The mother knew her son would be dreadfully disappointed if he couldn’t go. She talked about the one-time educational opportunity of this particular trip.

Suze didn’t budge an inch. Tell him you simply can’t afford it, she counseled without empathy. Tell him he can’t go this year, but he’ll be able to go another year.

Oprah was even firmer. If you let him go now, when he knows you can’t afford it, you’ll be setting a bad example for him about spending money you do not have.

My heart went out to that poor boy who would be so heartbroken. Mostly, though, I was outraged that Oprah and Suze didn’t offer any other alternatives to the mother. It was only the most radical and depressing solution: There’s no way he can go on that trip because you can’t afford it.

Here’s something I wish I would have heard instead: make it a project to earn the money to pay for the trip of a lifetime. Here are some ideas:

1. Get a paper route. I knew a large family that brought in almost half their income from paper routes that everyone participated in together before going off to school and work. At 4am, even the littlest ones would be in the garage, rolling and stuffing papers for the bigger kids to deliver by foot, bike, and car. All the money earned went toward the communal family coffers, but this family could put it aside to pay for his trip.

2. In my neighborhood, an elementary school kid started up a business where kids hang flyers from local merchants on doors throughout the neighborhood. He began by doing it all himself and grew to hire other kids to help deliver. It’s a win-win for the kids and the local merchants. And for the neighborhood, too, as the flyers often contain coupons to encourage people to support local businesses.

3. When I was 16, I decided I wanted to go to South America and volunteer with a group called Amigos de las Americas. It required 6 months of training and fundraising efforts so that the out-of-pocket expenses per volunteer would be significantly less than if we were each paying our own way.

Some of the fundraising efforts we did included running a local bingo parlor on Sunday mornings (each family rotated through this responsibility), selling frozen pizzas (after the sales were taken, we formed an assembly line to assemble and shrink-wrap each pizza, which was delivered fresh to your freezer), and selling handmade blankets (ours were made out of old ski hats from various ski areas… perfect for a Colorado rec room!).

What if the parents of this boy organized a class fundraiser to help reduce the out-of-pocket costs for all of the families? I’d do that in a second if it meant that a) I wouldn’t have to disappoint my kid, and b) he would learn some valuable things in the process. Things like working to earn toward a goal. It’s amazing, too, how a common effort like this can pull a family and community together. By the time these kids went on their trip, they would have experienced some serious team-building exercises together. Even if there wasn’t enough time to do this beforehand, the parents could do a short-term loan that would be repaid upon completion of the fundraising effort.

But most of all, advice like this could have empowered the mother and the son, instead of sending them to the depths of dispair and hopelessness.

It could have instead been an opportunity to offer hope and creative ideas to solve the problem. We could all use a little bit of hope right about now, I think.

→ As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I also may use affiliate links elsewhere in my site.

Posted in Kids, Multiple Sclerosis | Tagged frugal teen, fundraising, fundraising ideas, managing a budge, Oprah, Suze Orman

Related Posts

Blue Sky Natural Soda Pop→

What do Celine Dion, Selma Blair, and Christina Applegate have in common?→

Redefining Autoimmunity and MS→

Multiple Sclerosis 101 and Lifestyle Tips for Reducing Inflammation→

Subscribe to Elizabeth’s Blog

Get blog posts right to your inbox. Unsubscribe at any time.

Name

Email


Check out my book!

Glorious One-Pot Meals

Buy It Now! »

Effortless Topics

  • Allergy-free Foods
  • Autoimmune
  • Books
  • Cooking demonstrations
  • Effortless Eating
  • Events
  • food sensitivities
  • Glorious One-Pot Meals
  • Guest post
  • Kids
  • Living naturally
  • Mental Health
  • Misc.
  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • Natural Health Questions
  • Natural remedies
  • Nutrition in the news
  • Parasites
  • Recipes
  • Recommended Products
  • The Inflammation Influence
  • Uncategorized
  • Weight loss

My Multiple Sclerosis Story

The Fight MS with Food Project

What if you could change your life simply by changing your diet?
Tweets by @ElizabethYarnel

Popular Posts

  • Missing image

    Apple Juice Colon Cleanse

    52558 views / Posted August 16, 2008
  • Homemade Natural Carpet Shampoo/Cleaner for Carpet Cleaning Machines

    51238 views / Posted September 24, 2013
  • Missing image

    Playing In the Grass Makes Me Itchy: Natural Relief for Itching, Rashes

    41601 views / Posted May 22, 2013
  • Missing image

    Plantar Warts

    36808 views / Posted August 30, 2007
  • Missing image

    Oat-based Aussie Bites Are Treats for the Gluten-free Soul

    25199 views / Posted December 29, 2013

Sites I Like

  • Beautycounter clean beauty products
  • Conversations With My Mother
  • Positive Health Wellness
  • Elana’s Pantry
  • The Savory Spice Shop
verified by healthprofs.com verified by healthprofs.com Directory
natural food blogs

Menu

  • Book a Complimentary Naturopathic Health Assessment!
  • About
  • Contact
  • Elizabeth Yarnell Events
  • Natural Healthcare
  • Articles for Reprint
  • Media Room
  • Affiliate Program
  • Nutritional Counts
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimers | Terms | Policies | Site Info
  • Digistars® STEAM Programs
  • Sign up for my newsletter!
Amazon icon Book Bub icon Booksprout icon Email icon Facebook icon Goodreads icon Instagram icon Periscope icon Pinterest icon RSS icon Snapchat icon Tumblr icon Twitter icon Vine icon Youtube icon

Copyright 2023   •   Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer   •   Privacy

We use cookies in this website. Read about them in our cookies policy. To disable them, configure your browser properly. If you keep using this website, you are accepting those.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT

Interesting Image
Keep in touch with Elizabeth!
Elizabeth Yarnell and Pomegranate Consulting will never sell or share your information and you can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of every email. See our Privacy Policy for more details.

Pro Tip

Our email may sometimes go to your spam/promotions tab, but there's a solution for that.
Look for your confirmation email and add info@elizabethyarnell.com to your contacts to make sure you receive the latest emails. If you use Gmail, drag the confirmation email to your "Primary" tab.


Click here to read the Privacy Policy.