ABSTRACT

Oberlin residents contribute to causes dependent upon voluntary donations in several ways. Churches are supported through the contributions of their members, and often use their position as a legitimate recipient of donations to solicit for causes of interest to themselves. School groups and the Girl Scouts generally mobilize their armies of children once a year to sell cookies, garden seeds, and magazines. (A few groups, including the Boy Scouts and some churches, used to take advantage of the offer of the state legislature (now rescinded) to contribute a portion of the sales tax revenues to non-profit organizations industrious enough to gather and sort the sales tax receipts given with most retail purchases in Ohio.) Collection cans for various health organizations and funds are present in local stores to gather stray change. Christmas seals are sold to carry on the fight against tuberculosis and once a year, the Oberlin resident finds it impossible to walk through the business district without a red poppy for the disabled veterans displayed conspicuously upon his person, unless he has the moral stamina to ward off five or six assaults by teams of school girls.