Who would you give to?

Given the giveaway challenge to us all at TA, and the relentless editing of our replies by the new extremely unsympathetic and pedantic Owl popluation,

Who would you give to of the 5 worthy charities that TA gave us to choose from for the genreous even bounteous giveaway?

they are all indeed worthy charities most of whom I have already contributed to. And I will not ask how they came upon their shortlist.

I myself went as in many times in the past with the poor underpriveleged children.

I was tempted by the cheese eating surrender monkey doctors, and the tree huggers (both of whom I have supprted in the past).

TA have asked me to ask my friends to vote. I say tell me why you voted if you like. And I say that as they have asked me to ask my friends, this is a valid question.

Who would you give to?

And I still demand a spell check. As I am hopeless with my typing on a laptop.

Who would you give to?

Shame the link doesn%26#39;t work...

Try www.tripadvisor.com/causes

the link does work, but you didn%26#39;t answer ;-)

the cheesy monkey docs are winning as of now. The poor children need a boost.

Or maybe not, as I am a fan of those silly docs really.

You decide.

amanx

I can%26#39;t get the link to work either

go to TA.com rather than .co.uk perhaps?

Anyway, they sent me an email to ask me my opinion then asked me to send it on to my friends.

I took this as a genuinely helpful attempt to gain the opionion of the public. Not as an attmept to garner as many email addreses to sell on as possible.

Have you downloaded google toolbar? there is a spell check on that

For Tripadvisor giving, I voted for the Nature Conservancy. So many of our vacations are what I would call Nature Light -- (We%26#39;re not hard core back packers or adventurers, but we love the US National parks, places like Sedona, AZ, Costa Rica, etc.) Enjoying the beautiful outdoors and seeing animals in their natural habitats is so uplifting. And this organization is helping to preserve some of these places for years to come. I%26#39;ve personal enjoyed some of the beautiful meadows that they bought up surrounding Rocky Mountain National Park that eventually became part of Rocky Mountain National Park due to their contribution. I%26#39;ve taken ranger guided hikes here and seen deer grazing in these meadows. This organization does some wonderful things. I love the way they often just buy up the land they want to preserve, a straight forward, simple, and brillant approach.

Disaster Relief and relief organizations for those in the world who are stuggling are great causes that I support and encourage others to support, but I didn%26#39;t see those in as close alignment to the Trip Advisor mission.

I wanted to vote for the American Red Cross, but it wasn%26#39;t a choice. The southeast portion of Texas has been devastated by Hurricane Ike. The city of Galveston is like a third world country in the words of the mayor. Homes destroyed, no electricity, water, natural gas, sewage, or the basic necessities of life.

For people unfamiliar with living without electricity I would like to familiarize you with some common transactions.

Everyone wants CASH. If you don%26#39;t have electricity, debit cards and credit cards do not work. To get this cash, you must go to a bank that does not have electricity. They allow 3 people at a time in from the long line formed at the door. Since they don%26#39;t have electricity, they must call a bank on the phone that does have electricity to inquire how much money is in the owner%26#39;s account. They then dispense that much cash money to the account holder. Those 3 account holders then leave together and the next 3 enter to go through the procedure.

Grocery stores do not have electricity - but they are still selling dry goods. Clerks must use hand held calculators to add up grocery bills, tax, etc. and then ask the customer for cash. Conveyor belts, registors, etc. are not working and the customer must bag their groceries while the clerks are adding up the bill. Brings back memories of the old days doesn%26#39;t it?

If you can afford to help a charity, why not consider the Americans that have been devastated in our own country before considering people somewhere else?

There but for the grace of God go I.

We give so much to foreign countries during calamaties, I would hope that Americans are just as generous to our own people.

Galveston,

Nice speech, and yes I did give already to the american red cross.

But we asked a different question, which of the 5 charities chosen by TA to vote they give to.

If you have a problem with the charites they chose, take it up with them not us.