The past few days people have been asking me “what’s wrong”?
I am now going to try and explain some of what I've been feeling for the past
few days.
On Oct 7th my daughter, my youngest son, Anthony
and I attended the 2012 Buddy Walk for the Inland area group, Up for Down. We
went there first under the impression that it was only going to be $5.00 each
because we didn't want to par-take in the walk, but visit with everyone there
and try and sell some shirts that we had made prior to the walk. My husband and I were told a few weeks before
this that the shirts would be great at the buddy walk, no where were we told
not to show up and start selling them but were in fact told to possibly set up
a table there. I had told the women that
said this to me that I didn't think I would have enough time to get such an amount
for that many people but I would show up and possibly take orders for what I didn't have.
So here we were at the walk, with a small box of shirts and
yes raffle tickets that we had made for an iPad 2 that we were trying to help
raise even more money for our team with.
The tickets read iPad 2 raffle and all proceeds over the cost of the
iPad 2 would go to the group Up for Downs through DSALA under our team AAA
(Anthony’s Amazing All-Stars). We almost
had enough for the product when we showed up at the walk on the 7th
and had sold only a few tickets there along with a few shirts; one of which had
been ordered before the walk date.
We get to the walk and I am charges $25 for both me and my
daughter, which is far more than the $5 my husband said would be ok to spend,
so I had over paid by $40, which I’m a little upset but the money goes to the
programs we ourselves were trying to raise money for so I was on the fence
about the whole thing.
The baby and I left my daughter at the table that someone
was kind enough to give to us while we were there, and with me carrying him
started the walk with the whole group. I
walked about a ¼ of the mile and he was asleep so I turned back only to see one
of the ladies I had talked to before over by my daughter asking her a bunch of
questions. I walk over there, put the
baby in his stroller and start talking to the lady.
She first asked me if I had sold any tickets, I told her we
had sold what I believed was 5 at the time as I didn't know the exact number. I was then told that it was a problem, not
the complete nature of the problem but that it was causing a problem, so I had
my daughter put the shirts and the tickets into the car and I then talked to
member of the DSALA on the ladies cell phone (I’m not using names of the people
involved because I personally do not want or need any more trouble from
anyone).
I talked to him for about 20 minutes and I told him I
understand that it was causing some problems and had in fact told my daughter
to put everything away. I was not aware
that I was causing so many problems, trying to raise money for this group that
we had become semi close to over the past year.
We left the walk a little early one because the baby would
never let me put him down long enough to relax my arms, 2 the walk was over and
there was just a bunch of games going on and 3 I was tired from not getting
much rest during the week prior to this.
I get home and relax. A few days go by and I post that the
last day for the ticket sale would be October 19th, so to jump in
and buy before its too late…I had posted this on a few different DS groups on Facebook. On Friday I get a private message from
someone I rather like, from the biggest group that I connect with (which I have
been rather laps on since all this started).
I told her I would call her the next day because I was due
in her area and it would be great to see her and give her the shirt that she
had wanted to get. I called her and my
whole day just went down from there. She
told me that she had received a call and was told to take my site info down off
the site because what I was doing was wrong and was causing a lot of problems…that
I wasn't even aware of.
She explained to me that because it had the group name Up
for Downs and DSALA on the tickets that it was illegal. Yes you heard me right; the names make it
Illegal for me to sell. It could cause
more problems for everyone involved if I don’t stop selling them and that my
site was removed because of the tickets on there. I also had posted that the money over the
cost of the shirts was going to be part of our donation to the DSALA Buddy walk
in November. I was told that the shirts
are nice but that I needed to take the site down, remove everything about it
and then I could re-post it just for the shirts, not saying where the money
would go.
I didn't have time to change it that day as we were just
walking out the door to go to a birthday party, the first party we have been
invited to for a child since Anthony was born so of course we wanted to be
there. We show up, had a good time and go home.
The next day I’m sitting in my living room with my kids watching TV with
the baby in my lap when my phone goes off.
It’s the guy from DSALA calling me.
I answer the phone; here is a VERY brief part of the call, or at least
the jest of it.
Him: Hi we talked on the phone the other day…
Me: Yes I remember, sorry I haven’t called; I've been rather
sick and am just starting to feel better.
Him: I’m calling to make sure you understand….I need you to
remove the site and stop selling the shirts.
Overall the whole conversation made me upset and rather hurt
that something so minor as the woman I had talked to at the walk could have
fixed to everyone being upset and it causing me so many problems over names
that I didn't even know I couldn't use on tickets. Forget the shirts; I was more worried about
the tickets so we could get enough to give the iPad 2 away without a loss. So yes, now I’m depressed, upset and very
hurt by everyone.
I like the group but now I feel like I’m alone in this
again, like everything we have done was for nothing and I’m not even sure if we’ll
attend anymore events for the group we had once felt so close with again.
As for the Buddy walk next month; I’m not sure but my
stomach is in a bunch of knots just thinking about it.
The shirt site is back up and running, without the tickets or any names other than my own on there now. Please feel free to share the site, tell your friends about these great shirts for kids and adults with Down Syndrome.
The shirt site is back up and running, without the tickets or any names other than my own on there now. Please feel free to share the site, tell your friends about these great shirts for kids and adults with Down Syndrome.
