Jason

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/p...8059-home-show

WereBo

Awwwww - Top marks to Pixar and the unknown employee who made the visit, you can't put a price on gestures like that

-=Rousseau=-

And that is why I love Pixar. That and their movies are amazing. I don't normally watch animated films, but I'll watch a Pixar film any day... :D

Zealex

I feel bad for that girl, shes ten and shes going to die. She could have had a full future in front of her, not saying it's her fault but that is really upsetting :(.

WereBo

She hung on until she'd watched the movie, then died 7 hours afterwards, that's what made Pixar's gesture so special

Zealex

The sad part is we have millionaires who can't fork over a penny to charity, that really upsets me.

Something related, my friend showed me this on xfire.

YouTube - ELVIS OnTour Outtake # 10 / With A Young Sick Fan
A dying girl who wanted to see Elvis and her dream came true.

-=Rousseau=-

Are you saying that millionaires are necessarily greedy? You do know that millionaires actually do give a lot to charity, right? Maybe playing the percentages game can make them look greedy, but $100k to orphans in africa out of a $1m fortune makes more difference than $5k out of $35k. I know a few millionaires myself, and they also give money in ways that aren't tracked as easily - and are more effective than giving to some large organization (which has overhead and only some percentage of the money actually goes to help...)

For example, one millionaire I know built an orphanage and school building in Uganda on his own dime ($100k in US dollars goes a very long way in Africa). Giving that amount to another cause would have had a much smaller effect, if any, considering mainstream charities sometimes spread the money through governments in Africa, which are corrupt and take the money for themselves...

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but characterizations of those who often have the largest impact on charity as greedy, selfish creeps annoys me... Maybe I'm biased, though, since I've not met one millionaire yet who doesn't give a good deal to charity - and think through every way to be as effective as possible. And they tend to be pretty nice...

WereBo

Also, the millionaires usually get good 'Tax Beaks' for charitable donations - I'm not belittling their gifts in any way, just mentioning the benefits from their side

Jason

I believe they are able to write off 35% of what they give away, as they pay 35% in taxes for the top bracket. So for every $1,000 they give away they are entitled to write of $350. But with proposed changes to the system, it will be less then that. Unless you are talking Bill Gates money, where you can setup your own foundation, you really are not getting that much back.

Zealex

I was referring to some, not all.

l_b_rex

I wonder how much better the world would be if all families making over $100,000,000/yr had to or volunteered to donate atleast $100,000 to less fortunate areas of the world as well as charities locally.

Living in a giving world...pipe dream?

WereBo

It's a lovely ideal, but I think 'Mankind' needs to evolve quite a few thousand years more, yet

Mcninjaguy

That girl seeing UP is quite a touching story.

Zealex

Sadly that is true.


Indeed it is

-=Rousseau=-

All families making $100m a year... actually, that would have almost no effect. There are so very few of them... No athlete or actor makes near that much. 99.999999% of businessmen don't either. Some people have made that much in a year, but I'm guessing very, very few do so more than 1 or 2 years in a row...

We'd have better luck by eliminating agricultural subsidies (the program where farmers - really, agribusinesses - are paid to not grow crops, thus keeping prices at a govt. approved level) and giving that money where needed elsewhere. Lots of other govt. programs could be done away with and transfer the money as well. Like the research grants that tell us what our kids could figure out, such as why drug-addicted prostitutes in Asia are more likely to get aids...

RockmasteR

that was a really kind move from Pixar
poor little girl
life is really unfair