2008 30 Hour Famine Recap

I did a very poor job of promoting the 30 Hour Famine on my blog this year but wanted to at least share the results.

For those of you unfamiliar with the famine, a quick overview... World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to among other things, fighting hunger around the world. Every year they organize the "30 Hour Famine" where people vow to go without food for 30 hours in order to raise money to combat this issue. For the past five years, I have participated along with the junior & senior high school kids from our youth fellowship group at church.

The numbers around this issue always shock me...

• Every 3 seconds someone dies from starvation.
• $1 can feed a child for a day.

My personal goal in past years has been to raise enough money to sponsor a child for an entire year... that's $360. I've found a few very generous and reliable sponsors over the years so rather than taking it easy, I decided to step it up and shoot for $720 this go around.

As the famine weekend approached, so did some nasty winter weather. Since our youth group kids all go to Fairfax county public schools, church sponsored activities follow their schedule. More or less if school is out, church is out. As bad luck would have it, the ice storm hit on Friday and FCP schools were canceled causing us to cancel the actual event.

While I'll admit I was a little excited to suddenly have a free weekend, I did not feel good about raising money and then not doing the famine. So rather than carry this guilt through the weekend I decided to do the famine my own. Let me tell you... not fun when you're doing this by yourself although I have to admit I did take a few more naps than I do when I'm with the kids.

So without further ado, the final total of monies raised...

• My Total: $1,100
• Group Total: $5,400

Simply awesome. Thanks to everyone who donated! With so many other causes worthy of your time & attention, I truly appreciate the support.