Dear Annie: Four months ago, I joined a nonprofit that provides free tutoring and homework help to elementary-school kids. When I started, the kids coming into our center were from low-income minority and immigrant families. These were kids who would
Dear Annie: Four months ago, I joined a nonprofit that provides free tutoring and homework help to elementary-school kids. When I started, the kids coming into our center were from low-income minority and immigrant families. These were kids who would be home alone all afternoon if they didn’t come to us.
A few weeks ago, the demographic shifted. A large number of kids from stable, affluent families began arriving at the center. The parents of these children own property in an area that is quickly gentrifying.
This nonprofit is meant for kids whose families really need it. I feel as if I’m providing free baby-sitting and tutoring for kids whose parents could afford to pay for such services. What do you think? — New Yorker
Dear N.Y.: You should discuss this with the administrators of the program. Perhaps there could be an income-based tuition or in-kind contribution so that families that can afford it would help support the center. Either way, consider these higher-income kids are getting valuable lessons in diversity, and some of them might also be home alone if the center didn’t exist. As long as the original students are not losing their places in the program to higher-income children, you are performing a useful and appreciated service to the community.
Dear Annie: You printed a letter from “Noisy Dog Next Door,” whose neighbors’ dog barked for hours on end.
Our neighbors have four dogs that also bark nonstop. We mentioned it to them several times. They apologized, but nothing changed. We hesitated to call the neighborhood association, because everyone would know we were the ones complaining.
We finally stumbled on a solution last summer. We set up a tower fan to help lower the cost of cooling our home and discovered it also drowns out the sound of the barking. We now run the fan 12 months a year. — Memphis, Tenn.
Dear Memphis: We’re not sure that would work as well in Minnesota as it does in Tennessee, but thanks for the idea.
Annie’s Snippet: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
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