If Not Now, When?
Writing in the February 11, 2009 Charlotte Observer's business section about fund raising plans for the UNCC Charlotte football program, Stan Olson leads off with the question: If not now, when?
Olson proceeds to relate how, despite the difficult economy, the 49ers Football Feasibility Committee is going forward with plans to raise $45 million to establish the program and build a stadium on campus. He quotes Mac Everett, a respected business leader and honorary co-chairman of the school's fund raising committee as saying:
"There will never be a time when the money required to launch football will be readily available. It won't be an easy journey; it may be a long journey. But at the end of the day, the destination will help transform this university and this whole community".
The fund raising goal for our own campaign to help end child homelessness through a family stabilization program and a transitional facility for families is less than a third of that. I would borrow Olson's opening line and ask our community the same direct question:
If not now, when?
Because the cause of eliminating homelessness for children is not any less compelling than a football program at UNCC Charlotte, I trust that our community will be ashamed to choose one over the other, or put off giving towards eliminating homelessness while we cheerfully plow ahead with the other. Mac Everett suggests that we should endure the journey because a football program at UNCC will "help transform this university and this whole community". Wouldn't it be truly exciting if in addition to having a football program at UNCC, we were to be known as the city where homelessness for children does not exist?
If we can endure the difficult and long journey of fund raising to launch a football program at UNCC, we can do the same to make sure there are no children sleeping on the streets of Charlotte. If we are possessed with a sense of urgency about doing that for football now, we should feel equally compelled to help the children now.
I am convinced that the 49ers Football Feasibility Committee will meet its goals because despite the economic crisis, the Charlotte community has the wherewithal to make that happen. I also believe we have the capacity to eliminate child homelessness in our city, and that we can, if we choose, begin doing something significant towards that goal now!
Olson proceeds to relate how, despite the difficult economy, the 49ers Football Feasibility Committee is going forward with plans to raise $45 million to establish the program and build a stadium on campus. He quotes Mac Everett, a respected business leader and honorary co-chairman of the school's fund raising committee as saying:
"There will never be a time when the money required to launch football will be readily available. It won't be an easy journey; it may be a long journey. But at the end of the day, the destination will help transform this university and this whole community".
The fund raising goal for our own campaign to help end child homelessness through a family stabilization program and a transitional facility for families is less than a third of that. I would borrow Olson's opening line and ask our community the same direct question:
If not now, when?
Because the cause of eliminating homelessness for children is not any less compelling than a football program at UNCC Charlotte, I trust that our community will be ashamed to choose one over the other, or put off giving towards eliminating homelessness while we cheerfully plow ahead with the other. Mac Everett suggests that we should endure the journey because a football program at UNCC will "help transform this university and this whole community". Wouldn't it be truly exciting if in addition to having a football program at UNCC, we were to be known as the city where homelessness for children does not exist?
If we can endure the difficult and long journey of fund raising to launch a football program at UNCC, we can do the same to make sure there are no children sleeping on the streets of Charlotte. If we are possessed with a sense of urgency about doing that for football now, we should feel equally compelled to help the children now.
I am convinced that the 49ers Football Feasibility Committee will meet its goals because despite the economic crisis, the Charlotte community has the wherewithal to make that happen. I also believe we have the capacity to eliminate child homelessness in our city, and that we can, if we choose, begin doing something significant towards that goal now!
Comments