April 4, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
After escaping the drug addiction and crime of Chicago’s Southside and managing a successful private investment company, Paul Labradford wants to give inner-city kids a lift — literally — by starting an $11.5-million charity to promote pole-vaulting. His motto: “No child should grow up without access to the world’s greatest sport that involves propelling oneself over a horizontal bar.”
Of course, the philanthropist is a fabrication by the satirical newspaper the Onion. But in language that mimics real fund-raising appeals, Mr. Labradford makes an impassioned plea for the absurd track-and-field charitable cause.
“The statistics are sobering. Studies have shown that less than 5
percent of the poorest urban youth have adequate pole-vaulting
facilities. Sadly enough, many schoolchildren have never even
pole-vaulted at all, and less than 1 percent go on to pursue a career
in pole-vaulting after leaving school,” the Onion writes. “Let’s
make pole-vaulting a right, not a privilege.”
The Onion appears to be teasing the nonprofit world more recently.
In the past two years, targets have included Bono. the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, anonymous donors, the Walton family’s giving, and Christian relief groups.
But some charities are not laughing. After an Onion article in January about a
sick child who bankrupted the Make-a-Wish Foundation by asking for
unlimited wishes, one of the group’s affiliates had to post a notice
on its Web site to tell its supporters the story was a spoof.
What do you think? Are the Onion stories a fun break from the
seriousness of nonprofit work? Or, as with the Make-a-Wish Foundation
story, is does the satire sometimes backfire? Click on the “comment”
link below to share your thoughts.
