I organized the event by assigning each member of the office something to bring in , to make a lovely arrangement . So you took what should have been a voluntary thing and instead told people what to do ? If this was for people who didn ' t have any other place to go , those should have been the only people to bring something . I don ' t blame them for ignoring you . They aren ' t required to spend their own money to support a work event . If your boss wanted to do something nice for these folks , you should have been given a budget to work with , paid for by the company . <| sep |> Across the midwest , sod houses were the only way to survive brutal winters . Wood was at a premium and didn ' t provide nearly any insulation from the cold . Stone isn ' t much different