Well, not really. I was born a little bit past the era when you could get a drivable car for a couple hundred bucks; but I digress. Lucy has spent this afternoon playing with her wonderful iPad - look at her go! These are "toys" that open wonderful new doors for children who live with neuromuscular diseases and cannot play in the traditional sense.
We were able to get Lucy this pricey piece of equipment due to the impossibly generous donations of so, so many people. Not monetary donations, though - donations of discs that were no longer being used; CDs and DVDs. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. Boxes and bags of them. We sorted through them as best we could and sent them off to iPodmeister. They graciously gave us a 10% discount on the amount of discs needed to procure an iPad. We ended up sending the requisite 675, plus an additional 30 to compensate for any damaged ones we had overlooked. The company pays for shipping, which was a big plus!
A couple of weeks later, we received an email from iPodmeister, stating that they of the discs had received:
Incomplete cover art: 5
Radio Edits, Promos: 12
Scratched: 16
Incorrect CD in case: 18
Water damaged: 3
Club CDs (BMG, Columbia): 45
Penny-Items (resale value of <$1): 33%
Due to the fact that apparently 33% of the discs were penny sale items, figuring in the 10% they had allotted us, they could offer us a check for $269. An iPad is not $269. We had ended up with more discs and had 100 or so left, so I emailed them back asking if we could send those discs (on our dime, of course) to help make up some of the difference, but was hoping they could specify what constituted "penny items" so I wouldn't have to waste shipping money sending them. After two days of no reply, Noah and I decided that it would be cost-prohibitive to send so many heavy discs anyway, and may as well put that money toward the difference. I emailed them to tell them that we had changed our minds and would just accept the money offered, and they immediately responded to say that the check would be in the mail.
I am so unbelievably grateful that so many people put so much time and money into getting us the discs we needed; because of that we were able to get Lucy an iPad. I would not recommend this process to any other family looking to get an iPad, however. It is partly my fault for not reading all of the submission guidelines ahead of time, but after re-reading them in their entirety, at no time does it state how one can go about determining whether a disc will be considered a "penny item", so I assume it is left up to the discretion of the company. While that might be good, legitimate business, it makes it a bit hard for the customer to defend - or even know - that they've earned an actual product.
What's important, though, is that Lucy has this fabulous new toy that she can play independently on! Her favorites - and the easiest ones for her to manipulate - are the Peekaboos: barn, wild, and forest editions. She loves the kids' voices and the sounds the animals make. She can also use the piano and likes making music. If anyone has any suggestions for apps, we'd love to hear them!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who made this possible. The generosity we encountered while doing this was breathtakingly overwhelming, and brought me to tears more than a few times. Our family is truly blessed.
1 comments:
Try fart piano, little bella's I close my eyes, kid songs, and alpha belch. My daughter who has cerebral palsy and is three and half enjoys the fart piano and alpha belch (the animals burp). I don't know why she likes the sounds of burps and farts but go figure! Whatever we can do to entertain!!
Take care, nicole
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