Habitat for Humanity

Not infrequently young people are brought into Town and dumped on Greenwich Avenue with a box of candy bars or the like, and told to solicit "donations" for some non-existent "cause". Usually the police run them in for hawking without a permit, and once in a while the responsible adults are also apprehended and charged. It's one of those quality-of-life issues that the cops on the Avenue are able to monitor, and another reason not to replace them with insentient, unobservant, less efficient, and certainly less handsome traffic signals.

Thus when two young people approached your scribe on the Avenue this morning, waved what appeared to be a milk carton at him, and requested a donation for an unspecified cause, his antennae went up. He noted their description, and kept on moving. Unfortunately, he had left his Dick Tracy crimefighters wrist phone back in his car, so he was unable to call in this possible violation of a Town of Greenwich ordinance.

Well, actually, it turned out to be fortunate that his wrist was bare. As he approached the Havemeyer Building, he saw a group of Greenwich High students at a table, all dressed with the same white tee shirt and blue jeans that the earlier pair had been wearing. And across the front of the tee shirts were printed the words, "Habitat for Humanity".

Oops. Mortified at his mistake, your scribe quickly made a donation, and told the kids to keep up the good work. One of the great programs at the high school is the one in community service, and this was clearly an example of our local students volunteering to help a good cause. Now that's the kind of soliciting on the Avenue we could use more of, he thought to himself as he proceeded on his chastened way.

And so, dear reader, if you come to Greenwich Avenue on this relatively mild and rain-free Saturday afternoon, please be quick to make a donation to Habitat for Humanity. Your money will go further there than at Saks or Baccarat, and you will be making a difference for the better in the lives of others. Can you imagine what would happen if you donated the money you may have been planning to spend on some overpriced bauble at some out-of-town chain store to these students instead? You would quickly become a local hero. And you'd probably experience a much greater sense of satisfaction as well.