For the next two months, we're going to raise money for little poor kids in Africa who, without us, wouldn't go to school next year.
Let's get stoked about this! Seriously, I want energy and excitement to rush over us and make us feel like we overdid it on the Fun Dip. Remember when you were seven, and everything was awesome? Remember running to the Christmas tree and seeing all those video games, Barbie or Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles figures, or Furbies? Well, instead of plastic junk and malfunctioning Tickle Me Elmos, we are going to give these kids a future. They are gonna be so pumped when, out of the blue, they're told that someone has paid for their school fees and helped pave the way for a solid livelihood. We're going to change the course of several lives and give these kids a chance, one they desperately want and would otherwise not receive. What an honor!
Education assistance is a real need in Kenya. My contact in the community, a college-educated Kenyan woman who has devoted her life to serving this poor community, wrote to me, "Thanks for contacting me . . . this has been a need in our hearts and we have not been able to do it but God has his plans of opening good ways." We're going to be one of these good ways.
Alright, here's how it's going to work…
Every few weeks, I'm going to post a new fundraising challenge on both my blog (rgrblog.wordpress.com) and this page. I'd like everyone to accept the challenge. It's going to be fun, it's going to be uplifting, and it's not going to be all that difficult. Of course feel free to give beyond what the challenge asks of you. At the same time, if a particular challenge doesn't ask anything of you, don't feel compelled to give. Without further adieu, here's the challenge for the rest of October:
Challenge no. 1:
● This challenge will kick in when you go grocery shopping, except, however, when you go merely to, say, buy tonight's dinner, milk and eggs, or some gummy worms or M&M's to satisfy a craving. In other words, for the challenge to arise, you must be shopping for more than a minor amount of groceries.
● If you're shopping for a normal or larger amount of groceries, the challenge will be to (1) abstain from buying a single, unnecessary item OR to replace that unnecessary item with a cheaper alternative and (2) then give the money you would've spent on that item, or the difference in price between the two items, to this charity.
● The item can be whatever you want it to be—a two dollar bag of chips, an eight dollar steak, a five dollar bottle of wine, or even a fifty cent stick of gum.
● For whatever it's worth, this is how I plan to do the challenge. I plan to grocery shop as a normally do, picking up all items I would normally pick up. After getting into a checkout line, I plan to set one of my grocery items aside. I'll then get out my smart phone, log on to http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/funraiser-sic/x/5001389, which is optimized for cell phone use, and donate that item's value to charity. That's it—a small sacrifice for us, a potentially monumental gift for a third world kid, one who in a lot of ways is just like me and you.
The funds will be safely funneled through the non-profit JL, Patt & Friends Inc., a North Carolina based charity headed up by Dr. J.L. Williams. Interestingly, I first met JL in the Nairobi mall that was recently attacked. During that encounter, he convinced me to go with him on a missions trip to South Hoor, Kenya, a place to which he's been going an average of one to two times per year for a decade or more. It was in South Hoor where I met the two boppers in the photo, Joput and my man Huntingtu. Since coming back to the States, I've been in touch with JL, and he's happy to channel all the funds we raise to the South Hoor kids. If you have any questions, let me know. In the meantime, let's have some fun and help some kids!
P.S. I set a fundraising goal only because was one was required, and I set it to $2,500 because I think this figure is realistic. If we exceed the goal, however, don't be deterred from giving, as it would take close to $25,000 or more to satisfy the entire community's need in this regard.
