Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Give 1$ of your money

Over the summer Travis worked for an organization called The Tipping Bucket, and got to make some cool mini-docs for several very worthy projects.
Now that he's off with a real job and such (yay!) The Tipping Bucket still hires him to make docs for them on occasion.  The Tipping Bucket itself doesn't pay for things like the videos Travis makes. The people who are trying to raise money do, the Tipping Bucket just connects them to people like Travis and says "he'll make you a good video for a low cost."
Anyway, on Sunday we had this conversation:

Travis: I did something today. Something good and something bad. Which part should I tell you first?
Me: The bad, I guess.
Travis: I gypped us out of 300$.
Me: What! What did you buy?
Travis: I didn't buy anything.
Me: What did you break and have to pay for?
Travis: Nothing.
Me: Okay, obviously this is the good part, so tell me what you did that is good so I know where our money is.
Travis: I told the Tipping Bucket I'd do the project for free. So we're not getting paid for the video I made today.
Me: Why?
Travis: I was making the video and going through all our footage and I just remembered how much I love these people. I can't take 300 dollars from them. They need a well. The 300 dollars can go towards them building another well, or building a well faster. They live 6 miles from a well, Becky! Can you imagine how bad that sucks?
Me: You're such a good boy. That's okay that you're not getting paid. It didn't take you that long to put together anyway.
Travis: No. It took me like three hours. I can't let them pay me a hundred dollars an hour. People are more important than money.
Me: If everybody remembered that we wouldn't have a problem getting money for  a well.
Travis: So you're not mad?
Me: Meh, I might be except that you also have a full time job, and this was just a free afternoon of work. We're not really getting gypped out of anything. I'm proud of you. 

A few minutes later a woman called him in tears, thanking him for his kindness.
That seems like it was worth 300$, no?
This weekend he put this documentary together for them using some of our Africa footage.
Watch the video, and tell us what you think.
Or better yet, visit thetippingbucket.org and donate one dollar to help dig a well in Africa.

5 comments:

Polly said...

Yeah! Very awesome video, every video is better then the last. Travis you are amazing. We love you and we are proud of you.

MARCIE said...

I am so proud of you both! Well done Travis!

Nana B said...

great video, hope it raises all the money they need. And I agree with Polly, each one I see gets better and better, or more professional if that is what it should be. Good job, I hope they appreciate you at your new job.

Carol said...

Your heart is soft. We appreciate that about you!

Unknown said...

Who knew you could help provide water to dozens of People across the world by spending 3 hours in an afternoon. Love you guys.