Thursday, June 21, 2007

Little Acts

My 8-year-old daughter, Sophie, is a very generous soul. She’s always willing to give her money to those in need, donate clothes that no longer fit her to Goodwill, and on rare occasions, reluctantly part with a toy or two:

Sophie: I think that someone would really like to have this Barbie.
Me: Sophie, that particular Barbie doesn’t even have a head!

Anyway, a few weeks ago she announced that she wanted to cut her hair and donate it Locks of Love. Sophie has beautiful thick blond hair; women attempt to simulate her naturally highlighted hair by spending hours with their chemist, er I mean hairdresser, and treating tresses with smelly chemicals all for the cost of a winning superfecta wager.

Today was the day. Hair salon. Scissors. 12 inches of hair. Tears (me).

Sophie was very pleased and proud. And exceptionally happy that her little act was going to make someone else happy.

And maybe every now and then, we horseplayers and racing fans should participate in the little acts. The TBA contributes to the organization, Old Friends, and now Twinspires.com sponsors the Older Horse category in the TBA standings and donates to Old Friends as well to have their ad on the TBA blogs. Recently, Riding with Barbaro wristbands were sold for a couple of bucks to raise money for the Barbaro Lamintis Fund. If you missed out on the bracelet sales, you can always purchase some EquiPride and EquiLix horse supplements, assuming that you have a horse and you purchase the product via the internet, as SweetPro Feeds will donate a portion of the sale to the fund.

There’s the Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund, which recently had a cash-flow deficiency and couldn’t meet the monthly stipend of $1000 to all of the disabled jockeys, and Edgar Prado, saddle in hand, came to their rescue. Got a ton of money and a yearning for art? ReRun, a horse rescue organization, auctions Moneighs on eBay to raise funds. Good pal, John of Not to the Swift fame recently posted an entry regarding the impending doom of the once-glamorous Hialeah Park and I’m sure there’s a group out there who is looking for some cash to save a bit of history.

Little acts. The cost of a $2 wager on the 6th race at Hollywood. A few dollars from a winning Daily Double wager. It will make you exceptionally happy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are so Proud of Sophie!!
Please give her a big HUG from
The Dunham Family
Vaca-ing around Texas somewhere!!

(Yes Sue I stil read your Blog even on Vacation!!)

Patrick J Patten said...

Wow, that's awesome, hair is pretty cool it always grows back, (unless you are my dad and then it kind of just is gone) the bob cut looks cute, but i'm sure she's already figuring how long it will take to grow it out again.

t said...

my roommate donating her striking red hair that she hadn't cut in ~12 years to locks of love a coupla years ago. 'tis a very worthwhile charity and sophie should be very proud of her contribution. clearly someone is raising that child right.

John said...

A very nice post but now you've got me worried about all those poor headless Barbies. Surely there is something we can do ! Paris Hilton isn't using her head, maybe we could convince her to donate it . . .hmmm

Nellie said...

Aww... how sweet! And her new cut looks great.

Me? I just randomly decide 'hey, let's hack some hair off' then spent an eternity cursing because I can no longer tie it back and it's going all over the place in the wind. Now my absolute firm instructions are 'make sure I can pull it all back!'.

For anyone looking into giving a little bit back (who likes horses and not just racing) I'd recommend looking into a local therapeutic riding group as a volunteer. Some of the best horses I worked with were mounts (kind souls for the patients, hell on hooves for me) and it was always great to see the riders bond with horses. When it comes down to it, it really isn't 'volunteering' at all. Or just send 'em a blanket or two - oftentimes they're tiny operations based at a larger stable.

And where was Sophie when I was a kid? I'd have preferred to not have to waste time be-heading Barbies! (eh, I didn't just say that, did I?)