Rand Wacker

Last weekend I was running some errands down on 4th Street and ran in to a group of kids selling raffle tickets for some school fund raiser or another. Since I was relieved to not be approached again to buy a box of stale overpriced cookies I went ahead and bought a couple. As I was filling out the contact information I noticed that the girl I was talking to had something like 5 or 6 different colored armbands on, not just the all-too-common yellow Livestrong bracelet, but a whole series of purple, blue, red, even a mixed white/blue one. When I asked her what they were all for she instantly rattled them off, “this one is for cancer, this one is for cystic fibrosis, these are HIV/AIDS, and this is tsunami relief.” I collected my tickets and wandered off to my car.

Then I got to thinking, what is the real use of these bracelets, besides of course raising money? I thought, “What does a 10 year old know about cystic fibrosis? Has this interesting and noble cause just become another trendy style?” Then I realized, “Hey, I don’t know much about cystic fibrosis,” so I went and did a little research (turns out it affects children more than anyone). So, I guess if their purpose is to raise awareness of issues then they really are working!