Recently, there have been a couple days of awareness: Day of Silence and TOMS Day Without Shoes. In case you’ve been living in a rock for the past few weeks (that’s right, actually in the rock, not under it), Day of Silence is a day set aside to raise awareness for the discrimination that gays face. People who participate in the event wear all-black clothes and don’t speak for social reasons all day.
The Day Without Shoes was sponsored by TOMS shoes and encouraged people to walk a day without shoes in order not only to raise awareness for those who can’t afford shoes, but also to allow everyone to feel what it’s like to not have the rubber and leather contraptions that shield us from the rocks and bits of glass.
Although these activities aren’t always literal in connection to the causes that they support, their metaphorical purpose is oftentimes catchy and definitely captures people’s attention.
On social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, people questioned the effectiveness of such days. Days like that don’t directly raise any money for their causes, so what really is their use, anyway?
However, it is awareness events that let everyone partake in supporting worthy causes, involve the entire community and propose that everyone do their part in the organization. What needs to be realized is that fiscal success is not the only drive behind these events; one of the central focal points is just what they say they do: raise awareness.
If just one person asks why someone isn’t wearing shoes, and he or she responds by telling about the struggles of many people around the world, then isn’t it worth it? That may cause a chain reaction: a thought turning into an action turning into a donation turning into volunteering. More importantly, the potent aspect of these days is the fact that it instills a sense of goodwill into the people that participate in the awareness days.
Volunteering is an uplifting act that puts people in a good mood; something intangible about helping others really lifts people up emotionally, and usually sparks interest in helping even more. Even something small, like not wearing shoes or wearing black and not speaking, has a ripple effect on people’s moods. This feeling of helping others may stimulate a desire to help more, or to help in a more tangible way. It’s like being bitten by the volunteering bug.
Days such as these are not stupid, and they are most certainly not useless. If just one person is informed of an issue that he or she were ignorant of before, then isn’t it worth it? Most of the campaigning of these events does not cost much money, especially with the Internet being such an available and free tool to utilize. Word of mouth and demonstration involve even more people, but the truth of the matter is there are no negative aspects of these days.
It would be different if there were numerous cons to these days, but there’s no harm in them at all. Even if you don’t believe in the cause, you should be able to respect the people who do for caring about an issue and informing others about it. Doing something is certainly better than not doing anything at all.
Lately, it seems like every day is an awareness day for something or another. For example, did you know that April is not only Alcohol Awareness Month, but also National Oral Health Month, National Child Abuse Awareness Month and Facial Protection month? While some awareness weeks and months are a bit superfluous, those that are well advertised and practiced do a sufficient job on educating the public about the topics they focus on. They are harmless and allow people to contribute time or energy to something they care about. And in case you want to celebrate, next week is National Playground Safety Week.
Wendy Morell is a freshman majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].