Spite Charity

           Spite Charity

 

          A report from my daughter’s high school days

 

 

          Each year, my daughter’s high school ran Spirit Week, which pit class against class, sorted by color. In her last year there, freshmen were red, sophomores were green, junior were orange and seniors were purple. Each cohort kept its color as the years passed; so the following year, sophomores were red, juniors were green, seniors were orange, and the freshmen inherited the color purple.

          Her last year there, the seniors won; so the school gnome was spray-painted purple.

          One of the many contests of Spirit Week is something that I call the Spite Charity. Each class sets out a jar; the cent value of any coins placed in a class’s jar is added to their points; but the cent value of any bills placed in a class’s jar is deducted from their points. This way the grades can sabotage each other. The money collected is given to a charity of the winner’s choice.

          When Hannah told me this, I gave her a small boxful of accumulated pennies, and a dollar bill. That was the spirit of the week.

          That year’s Spite Charity was a success. It gathered over $870 in four days. Hannah’s senior class got 52 sabotage dollars in their jar. They and the juniors got most of the sabotage dollars. The sophomores won that contest, mostly by being left alone. So my contribution was charity at its purest; from the unknown to the unknown.

          Hannah marvels that the natural animosity generated by competition, and the spite and sabotage, is here used for good!