Wyoming / Fundraiser dirty but determined
After a week on roof, mayor says he really wants a bath, but he's staying until teen center is saved.
It isn't the cold that bothers Sheldon Anderson the most.
It isn't the lack of a toilet or the loneliness. And as he enters his second week on the roof of the Wyoming City Hall, it isn't even the stares of passing drivers.
It's the bathing. "I have to use baby wipes," Anderson said as snow whipped around his tent Friday. "The one thing I am looking forward to is a nice, hot bubble bath."
Anderson, the mayor of Wyoming, climbed to the roof Feb. 2. His vow was to remain until he raised $35,000 to keep the Forest Lake Area Teen Center open.
As of Friday, he'd collected $23,000 and wasn't sure when he'd be able to come down.
"They are predicting wind chills of 40 below this weekend," Anderson said.
"I wanted extreme fundraising, and I got it. But if it were 75 and sunny, no one would pay attention."
Anderson is roof-camping in a 10-by-10-foot tent and sleeps on a cot. Local restaurants have donated food, and neighbors are bringing snacks of cookies and beef jerky.
Without a toilet, he uses a five-gallon drum with a plastic liner. He sits at a small table, tapping on his laptop to run his business, a detective agency called Capital Investigations and Security Services Inc., answer e-mail and update his blog at extremefundraising .blogspot.com.
He calls local businesses, many of which have helped out.
"Our city attorney donated $1,000," Anderson said.
At night, contributors drive up and put money in
the drop box used for city water bills.
Contributions seem to happen by accident. During a phone call, he was mistakenly transferred to a Subway shop inside a Wal-Mart - and an employee decided to drop off a sandwich for him on her way home that night.
Anderson missed the City Council meeting Tuesday and doesn't plan to miss the next one Feb. 19. But it's hard to say for sure.
"I don't know how long I will be up here," he said.
Anderson began his rooftop escapade after a last-ditch effort to keep the center open failed. Wyoming and Wyoming Township contributed $10,000 last summer, but pleas to area mayors last fall failed to raise any money.
"I knew I had to come up with something creative," Anderson said.
If he raises $35,000, he said, it will keep the center afloat for another year. After that, he said, the long-term health of the center will benefit by the creation of a new list of donors.
If the effort succeeds, he will consider doing it again - or some comparable media-attracting stunt to raise money for a good cause.
What if other people want to copy him and camp on the City Hall rooftop for their own favorite causes?
"I don't know. I am just doing what I can to help out," Anderson said. "But I don't have a patent for going up on a roof."
Bob Shaw can be reached at bshaw@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5433.
