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Trend alert: Charity hunger games

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, left, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne in a scene from “The Hunger Games.”
Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, left, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne in a scene from “The Hunger Games.”

Just got a voice message asking me to please post on my Facebook page or blog or Twitter account, or all of the above, that Sears has narrowed its Love.Hate charity competition to two charities -- The American Cancer Society and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. One of them will win $100,000, depending on which organization gets the most votes.

In the Hunger Games books and movie, children and teens try to kill each other to win the award of staying alive and getting gifts of food and luxury for their families and towns.

These Facebook-Twitter voting schemes feel like newfangled ways to pump up sales for companies, in the guise of charity. And they feel icky to me. Both charities do great work. And both are being used. I won't be playing this game.

(S-R Archive photo from the Hunger Games movie)

Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.