Season for Sharing aims to end gooberism
Up and at ‘em, people. Duty calls. Opportunity knocks.
This week kicks off The Republic’s annual Season for Sharing campaign, which over the years has raised millions for local non-profits that give our needy friends and neighbors a hand up.
And that also means it’s time for you people to rally to the call of Anti-Gooberism. Do we all remember goobers and their insidious creed of gooberism? A goober is someone who knows someone around them needs help and can provide that help and doesn’t.
Here at Valley 101, we don’t care for goobers.
So began Clay Thompson’s call to action in 2017, part of his hugely successful Anti-Gooberism drive to raise money for The Arizona Republic’s Season for Sharing campaign. The late Republic columnist enlisted his readers every year to help chase away goobers with donations to the campaign. And you people came through every year. He was often direct in his entreaties:
I’ve got a great — and actually true — story that involves homeless kids and newspaper reporters dressed up as elves (I can’t tell you how stupid they looked) and Santa. I could tell you this story, and I guarantee you would just bleed money, but it’s kind of long, and besides, you don’t want to give up your money just because you got jerked around by a sad story.
So here’s the deal: We all live here together, right? If we live in a place where we let some links in the chain grow weak from want or hunger or loneliness or abuse or whatever, what does that make the rest of us?
Goobers.
And goobers, he would say, had no place here. So here are four ways you can stamp out goobers in Clay’s memory:
Fill out the secure form at sharing.azcentral.com. Go to facebook.com/seasonforsharing and look for the “DONATE HERE” post. Text “SHARING” to 91-999 and click on the link in the text message. Or clip the coupon on Page 4A of The Arizona Republic and mail it to the address shown.
However you choose to donate, make sure to mention “goobers.”