Hello, Kind Stranger

As a member of the Knight Crew, I work at the call center. It's not quite the hassle of telemarketing, because we fund-raise rather than market.
One thing we like to say is that in addition to fund-raising, we really are friend-raising!

Today, I friend-raised.

To be honest, some days are better than others. Some days I get a stack of people to call and a whole lot of disconnected numbers, not homes, and people hanging up right after they hear, "Hi, my name is Lauren and I'm calling from Southern Virginia University-"

It's a bummer.

But I have to say, some of my favorite calls have been with people who felt they were too financially unstable to make a monetary donation. There was a kindly man who I caught on the phone just as he was getting to bed before an early morning work shift. And another man who, despite being between jobs, agreed to let us send him an empty pledge form for when things got better. And someone else who couldn't donate, but told me that he'd had a similar job and that I was doing great. A woman who worked at another university and whose son was now attending a different college, but gave us what she could, anyway. A spunky young lady who gave happily and freely. A young man now attending a different university, but who had fond memories of Southern Virginia, and decided he could spare a bit of his tight college budget.

There are definitely highlights. And if you get just a few of them, they keep you happy through the hang ups.