EDMONDS, Wash.-Carol Schillios, a 20-year consultant to credit unions who was recognized with a 2007 Herb Wegner Award for Individual Achievement, recently spent time on a downtown rooftop to raise funds for the Fabric of Life Foundation, the name of the non-profit Schillios created that is dedicated to assisting poverty-stricken women in developing countries, including through micro-finance and financial literacy. Schillios lived in a tent atop the store that sells fabric and jewelry created by women involved in programs overseas. Below, Schillios discusses her time up on the roof.
CUJ: Why were you seeking to raise funds?
Schillios: The primary cause was to fund education for the students at our trade school in West Africa, where young women go from begging for food to self-sufficient artisans in 18 months. My secondary goals were to celebrate the individual acts of thousands of people who do things every day to make their world a better place, to draw attention to the issues of poverty, and to educate people about fair trade and how we can impact slavery and poverty in real ways by what we buy and where we choose to buy it.
CUJ: How did you come to decide moving to a rooftop would be an ideal fundraiser?
Schillios: I became frustrated hearing so many complaints about what was wrong with the world. Hearing about greed and those who take advantage of the poor. I remember thinking one day there were a lot of good things happening we don't hear enough about in the media, that should be shouted from the rooftops. The thought popped into my head I should live in a tent on the roof of our shop in downtown Edmonds and draw attention to the many small positive things being done in the world by individuals. We need to celebrate everyday people. It's the sum of the whole that's really key to changing the world. One small act of kindness at a time.
CUJ: What was life like while on the rooftop, and did you consider coming down?
Schillios: I set up a tent, a camping shower and port-a-potty on the roof. Under a canopy I set up my laptop. Families and youth groups and high school classes in town signed up to feed me. The parameters were that they had to prepare food from a developing country, research that country, learn about its poverty and food and make me a portion that cost no more than $3. I had a basket in which I would haul up meals to the roof and into which people would put donations. I asked that people tell me one thing they are doing to make the world a better place and give me $1. Yes, just one dollar. I set a lofty goal of one-million people.
One month turned to two turned to three turned to almost four months. I went from record-breaking Seattle highs in July to frozen puddles and 30 mph winds in November. After 90 days we were still at $75,000. When the wind kept me up three nights in a row in November while I tried to keep my structure from blowing apart, I woke up to reality. As I told the media when they interviewed me, "The wind knocked one of the zeros off my goal."
I changed the goal from $1 million to a more realistic $100,000. After 113 days I came down just before Thanksgiving, lifted off the roof by the Edmonds Fire Department, having raised $103,600 for our projects.
There were certainly times I'd had it with all the challenges (like walking down the ladder daily to empty my port-a-potty sloshing over the sides, or being kept awake three nights in a row because of winds, being drenched by the rain.
Whenever I wanted to give up, something would happen to remind me I still had it better than 80% of the world. One such incident was when I interviewed two homeless women in Seattle who heard about me and came to bring me a meal of what they eat. I was so moved by their stories I was ashamed to think I couldn't weather the storms!
CUJ: What advice do you have for future rooftop-dwelling fundraisers?
Schillios: Prepare yourself for the media being more interested in your port-a-potty than your issues. While individual writers and TV personalities asked about the cause, people are more interested in roof-dwelling issues than issues of poverty. When I gently admonished the press, my friends in media pointed out that TV wouldn't have been interested at all if it weren't for me living on the roof. Sigh. Welcome to the world of ratings and soundbites that sell advertizing.
CUJ: Having done this, are you considering other non-traditional means of raising funds, awareness?
Schillios: Indeed I'm already in the planning stages for the next big promotion. This time, the issue will be to promote credit unions in the U.S. Suffice it to say that it will not involve a port-a-potty or camping showers. I am confident it will bring attention to the power of credit unions as an alternative to banking across the U.S. Stay tuned.
