The Blog of Columbus, Georgia

1 SEP 08: LABORING FOR LESS

Happy Labor Day to you. Of course, many people are laboring as usual in the workplace today. So if you see one, please be kind - and do NOT ask if they're making time-and-a-half or double time for the holiday.

BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Not every place may be able to afford holiday pay these days. Your blog has learned the Southeast headquarters of Christian rehabilitation ministry Teen Challenge in Columbus has ordered its staff to take a pay cut. I'm told the reduction is five percent - so no one can make an excuse to stop tithing completely quite yet.

A source I tend to trust tells me the Teen Challenge staff had to take a five-percent pay cut because donations are down. This is on top of the decision earlier this year to sell the Columbus program's "yellow house" on Sixth Avenue - without painting it red, to reflect the program's financial condition.

This isn't the first time Teen Challenge has been, uh, financially challenged in this way. The program reportedly made a similar pay cut in 2000, which lasted six months. What is it about Presidential election years? Are evangelicals too concerned about donating to Republican candidates?

From what I've learned about the program in recent months, "Teen Challenge" is a bit of a misnomer. Some of the "students" who arrive for treatment are in their thirties and forties. But some of those adults have had addictions since their teenage years - so perhaps it's all based on when your clean and sober life stopped.

Teen Challenge has rehabilitation centers across the country -- but a new one in Tallahassee reportedly was affected by Tropical Storm Fay. The center was built with stilts in the back, and that area wound up with ten feet of flood water. Some ministries might have considered it a blessing, and rushed to build a swimming pool.

Teen Challenge has been trying to avoid making a five-percent pay cut. You may have seen tables promoting the program in recent weeks, in front of area Wal-Mart stores. That can't be an easy place to seek donations - since Wal-Mart probably sells anything the program could offer at half the price.

If you don't visit Wal-Mart, there's another way to help Teen Challenge out of its predicament. The group's annual banquet will be held 22 September at the St. Luke Ministry Center downtown. The dinner is FREE with a reservation, but you'll be able to purchase items to help the program -- so maybe that's where you leave the 15-percent tip.

Teen Challenge not only faces the dilemma of a tight U.S. economy, but a competitive market among charities. For instance, there's that Labor Day tradition Jerry Lewis hosts. Any extra money you can offer to today's telethon could help sidekick Ed McMahon avoid losing his home to foreclosure.

As it has done for several years, WRBL did not join the "Love Network" telethon Sunday night. It's waiting until 6:00 a.m. to show Jerry Lewis, and won't begin its local fundraising programming until 8:00 a.m. Those infomercials at 1:00 in the morning must be more profitable than I thought.

But of course, local firefighters have been raising money to fight muscular dystrophy for several days. They park trucks outside supermarkets, and ask customers to "fill the boot." There simply is no country music bar in Columbus which can make up for this....

Another holiday charity event is the annual Altrusa Used Book Sale, which concludes today at the old Daniel Middle School. Remember: anything you don't buy might be loaned to the Muscogee County Schools, and turned into a textbook.

E-MAIL UPDATE: Speaking of offering charity, this may smell like an advertisement - but we're giving the writer the benefit of the doubt:

I just come from a new home based computer repair shop in Columbus and there name is TriSTar Computer Repair. I just gotton done new upgrade on a hard drive. I tried others in town and they either what to much or what to rib you off, but TriStar had very low prices and stuck to there price. I gotton a upgrade, diagnostics/ labor for only $168.00 even. I brand new hard drive and upgrades for very low price. You should try them out. If you what to try them out, there number is (706)984-8097 and they have website and I found it on yellowpages.com

Thanks

Kimberly Chapman

Personally, I'd rather not try out any computer repair shop. After all, that would mean my computer is broken....

Now for other items happening around Labor Day:

+ A national softball tournament concluded at South Commons. It was the first-ever World Series of the "Black Softball Circuit." The what?!?! In "One Columbus?" Is this some kind of payback for Fiesta Columbus in May?

(They're apparently so serious about making this a "Black Softball Circuit" that the team roster form required coaches to list the "ethnicity" of every player. I'm somehow not surprised that Barack Obama didn't show up for a campaign appearance.)

+ Evacuees from Hurricane Gustav began arriving at Calvary Christian School, which has become an emergency shelter. Hopefully the visitors will NOT be disappointed by the lack of a Labor Day parade in this area - unless the upset Mead Westvaco employees in Russell County decide to march around the plant, instead of standing outside holding signs.

+ Instant Message to all local preachers who say New Orleans hasn't learned its lessons from Hurricane Katrina, and has it coming again: I heard one minister the other night call it a "very sinful city." I answered him by saying there are lots of them -- and by the way, for some reason Gustav is NOT heading for Hurtsboro.

Our number of unique visitors is now up 28 percent from last year. To advertise to our readers, offer a story tip or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.

BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 986 (- 64, 6.1%)

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author -- not necessarily those of anyone else in Columbus living or dead, and perhaps not even you.

Monday, September 01, 2008