Vs. Newton Charity Issues

But I fear that any future charity drives will be tainted because of this.

Zammy is known for his annual charity drive during the holiday season and he sticks to his word every time. He had expressed worry that people will lose trust on him on the spot due to the Works program issue.

*sigh.

I think anyone in their right mind would put Zam in the same category as this moron. Zam has proven time and time again to have a heart.

You mean you donā€™t think anyone would, right? ::slight_smile:

Yes, sorry, trying to multitask at work and not doing a good job at it HAHA!!

I think its a little too soon to give Heath the full on Sandusky treatment guys.

First of all I am not aware of any set deadline in which 100% of the donation was to be processed. Its called a due date. Without a due date agreed upon, how can he be late on the payment?

Iā€™m not aware of Zammyā€™s charity drive, but i would assume if itā€™s happened more than once that heā€™s published his receipts for the previous ones if heā€™s handled money?

He repeatedly lied about the payments from the first set of auctions. Said that heā€™d ā€œfind the receiptsā€, then later admitted to having not made the donation and spent the money.

He admitted to it, making any ā€œdue dateā€ null and void. Also, being late with a payment and straight up spending the money, are two different things.

Well now.

I get the fact that everyoneā€™s mad. Furious, even. We put trust in a person to do something good for the world, something that affects a lot of us personally. If it doesnā€™t affect us personally, the simple fact that we are human beings means that it affects us.

Iā€™ve seen enough nonsense on yoyoing forums, though, to know that these conversations never go anywhere. People rant and rave about what a terrible person the perpetrator is, how the money is lost, and how theyā€™re going to beat the guy up if he ever shows his face again.

Let us not crucify Heath. He made a mistake. We are mad at him. But yelling about it on the Internet is not going to fix anything. He said heā€™s going to fix it. Letā€™s hope he does. But with the energy that we have now, I want, just this once, for the community to turn its collective rage into something productive and beautiful. I sincerely hope (and trust) that Chris can get that auction going. A community effort would revitalize us, and prove to me that weā€™re more than just a collection of people that do yoyo tricks. We stand for values, and when those values are betrayed, we make something of it.

Letā€™s hope Heath replaces the rest of the money, but letā€™s just hope. Calling for his head will get us nowhere. Itā€™s never worked in the past. Letā€™s try to make the best of a lousy situation. I believe that we can.

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It was only the community coming together and ā€œcalling for his headā€ that produced this progress towards a resolution in the first place.

I understand what youā€™re saying and agree to an extent, but understand that there are things at work behind the scenes to bring this situation to a resolution and that having an open forum where people can vent their feelings in a healthy monitored environment is not necessarily a bad thing, people are angry, upset and confused. If this thread helps people to vent, to feel better, or to understand better than itā€™s doing some good in a crappy situation.

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Again, hereā€™s a summary of the events:

  1. 2 years ago Heath organized a charity auction for the American Cancer Society
  2. People donated yoyos to be anodized and auctioned for this charity - all the money raised through eBay auctions was to be donated to the ACS
  3. Instead of donating the money, Heath stole it and spent it on undisclosed personal things
  4. Heath then lied for months and months about it
  5. Heath finally admitted guilt, but in a weak and ambiguous way, after donating $1150 out of $4300 raised
  6. Heath still owes $3150 to the ACS.
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Jrod I love you man. You are maintaining this discussion in a really professional manner and I have faith in your reasoning. Kudos to you for going above and beyond.

My only thoughts here is that an agreed upon due date / installment plan / time frame needs to be set and we need to provide Heath the opportunity to make good on his contractual agreement before we gather the torches and pitchforksā€¦Is that not reasonable?

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The most straightforward of the many problems going on here is that he spent money that wasnā€™t his to spend and then lied about it. Money that was supposed to go to help fight cancer. This transcends the issue of a due date. Period.

Even so, there certainly should have been established a date by which this would all be finished way back when he started the charity 2 years ago. There wasnā€™t. But he actually recently set a due date of October 2 to have this taken care of. Itā€™s certainly a reasonable course of action to try to set another due date. Iā€™m not convinced that setting another due date will be an effective course of action, though. My hunch is that pursuing legal action has more of a chance of being effective. Sociopaths donā€™t respond all that well to the sort of morals and social pressure that most people respond to. But they do respond to consequences.

Just to be clear - I use ā€œsociopathā€ not in a name calling way, but as a means of calling attention to the lack of clear responsibility he has taken for this, and the ongoing lies in the face of the reality of the situation. His response comes across as though he understands what has transpired to be something that happened but that he isnā€™t entirely responsible for. Nowhere does he state simply, ā€œI stole the money.ā€ or ā€œI spent charity money that wasnā€™t mine to spend.ā€

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Heā€™ll never do business in the yoyo world again and thatā€™s a good start for me. What would be ā€œreasonableā€ is if he paid the money to charity like a year ago and showed proof on the spot. Heā€™s an idiot because he thought he could just get away with this, and he canā€™t, no matter how much all you bleeding heart wusses out there want to treat this like itā€™s no big deal and Heath can be redeemed. Nope, he chose it for himself that he be exiled from here and seen for the moron he is.

I canā€™t understand how the word ā€œmistakeā€ keeps coming up. People donā€™t seem to understand the core values of this community (which is why my family and I are involved). This is not isolated. This money was being pilfered since day one. The eBay auction should have been set as a donation meaning Heath would never touch the money (and no fees taken). This was done for a reason. These charity auction were done as a loan so Heath could make yoyo making a full time job as he stated. I am sure he intended to make the money back and donate it but that did not happen. If purchasers knew of this they would not have spent over cost. Do not act as if the community is making a villain out of him as he has done this to himself. Everyday we make decisions which then others use to judge our character. I will not destroy products of his but would NEVER allow my money to pass through his hands.

In my opinion, not really.

He WILL pay the money, either by his own accord or through court order, and the opportunity for him to make good passed by when he lied, stole and defrauded many people in this community and a charity. Like Jrod is saying, the time for negotiation or understanding passed by a long time ago, itā€™s any means necessary time.

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I have to agree w/ Coffelt, the word ā€œmistakeā€ really shouldnā€™t apply to this. Its not like he gave someone Pepsi when they wanted Diet Pepsi. He pulled the wool over everyoneā€™s eyesā€¦there is no mistake when one takes such actions in life.

I agree too.

He chose to do this. He didnā€™t just accidentally use all that money, thatā€™s impossible.

I say we should stop saying the word ā€œMistakeā€ about this.

Agreed? :slight_smile:

Well I guess itā€™s safe to say Vsnyyc is destroyed. There yoyo value will go up for people wanting to own dead brands pretty much like anything else. Heath will never be respected or liked depending on the people and the length of time he spented trolling and lying to people. The sad part isā€¦who knows what amazing throws could have been created from him.

ok, so first off, in no way am I defending him.

Even with all of this going on, I would still buy a vsnyyc yoyo. You know why? Itā€™s a toy. Itā€™s meant to be played. I for one like the yoyos. If people hate Heath so much that they hate his yoyos, Iā€™d take em. Simple as that.

Now what Heath did wasnā€™t cool, but Iā€™m gonna say what Iā€™m gonna say.

Heath said he was going to donate money. Sure it may not have been the full amount, but itā€™s still something. $1100+ is still a lot of money. Letā€™s not forget the other millions of people who also donate money. Now while it may not be all of what he said, itā€™s more than most people donate. Iā€™ll be honest, thatā€™s way more than I have donated.

Sure people may say heā€™s a monster, but hey, heā€™s human. Unless I know someone in person, Iā€™m not going to hate them. Itā€™s far to easy to jump on the bandwagon.

Just my 2 cents.

Iā€™m expecting a Sh**storm, but hey, I had to say it.

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What, dude? What? What? So itā€™s ok that he pocketed 3/4ths of the money, because itā€™s ā€œgood enoughā€ that he donated 1/4th of it? It was never HIS to choose how much to donate. He STOLE money from a CANCER CHARITY FUND! And youā€™re commending him on the basis that he didnā€™t steal ALL of it? Wow.

Edit: Thanks for the ā€œThank Youā€™sā€ guysā€¦ if I could, Iā€™d thank myself for this post and I wish there was a ā€œBooo!ā€ button for Preinfalkā€™s half-baked post.

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