It feels good knowing that our post members and guests are willing to help the children in need by making this contribution. We will keep up the good work, and hope that everyone contributes for the children as well.
How Filling the PIG Helps the Children
During our Virginia Spring Conference in March 2016, I noticed a table set up for the Child Welfare Foundation, with a little red plastic piggy bank. Since it was for children, I was interested in it for our post. I got a brochure and a little red plastic pig and decided to read up on the program and introduce it to our post members. Well, who would have thought it would take off as it did? At first I mentioned spare or loose change, but then our members started to try to stuff bills in it. Since the piggy was so small, that wasn’t going to work, so I made the hole larger, and mounted it to the top of a mason jar with a hole in the top so money would go straight through. Unfortunately, that didn’t work as well as planned, but it sufficed for the time being.
After a while, we were making a good collection until one day I opened the door of my truck, and the jar fell out. Change and glass everywhere! Got it all picked up and sorted, and this time I got a larger jar.
My plan was that during the annual Virginia Spring Conference, I would turn in all the money collected during the year to the CWF table and let them know who it was from. For the first year we did really well, donating $127 for our post of 60 or so members, which in turn awarded us a nice letter and flag banner.
During 2017, again our jar was dropped (forgotten on top of someone’s car); the jar and piggy got broken again. This time the pig was busted up beyond repair, so I went in search of a new piggy bank that would suffice for our needs. At the 6th craft/variety store I went to, I found the perfect ceramic piggy bank. It was large enough to hold bills and only needed a little modification for our purpose. I cut the money slot larger, painted it pink, gave it googly eyes, and decorated it with decals for the CWF. So this is currently what it looks like, and we take it to all our functions for donations. At our 2018 Virginia Spring Conference held on 9-11 March, I again counted it up and turned it into the CWF table. That year we outdid the previous year. For a post having only 63 members, we donated $209.47! This year, 2019, we again exceeded the previous amount by donating $227.
