Archive for the ‘Charity’ Category

I was mistaken! World Vision does have personal donation pages this year. If PayPal or mailing a cash/check were too much of a barrier, please visit my donation page. Donations are certainly still accepted.

As for the famine, I was able to successfully complete the challenge this past weekend. I felt much more tired, light-headed and weak than I remember in previous years but that could just be my memory failing me. On Friday night we had a speaker from Bread for the World come and speak to us about their organization. This was followed by a brief letter writing campaign to our members of congress asking for reform around the laws governing foreign aid. On Saturday most of the group made its way down to a shelter in the southern Alexandria to help clean and stock food for the coming week. After returning to the church, we rested and watched a movie before finally breaking the fast with bread and soup around 7pm.

It was a great experience as always, and I look forward to the challenge again next year.

For the past six years, I have spent half of a Friday and most of a Saturday fasting with the junior and senior high kids from the youth group at my church in McLean in order to raise money for World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine and this weekend, I’m doing it again.

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.

The numbers around this issue always shock me…

• Every 3 seconds someone dies from starvation.
• $1 can feed a child for a day.
• It’s not a problem of quantity. The world produces 2800 calories of food per day for each person on the planet. (A regular diet calls for about 2000 calories.)

My personal goal this year is to raise enough money to sponsor two children for an entire year… that’s $720.

If you are looking to support a charitable cause this year, I would love the support. Contact me for payment details.

A few more details about World Vision and the famine are below…

How to Donate

1. Cash works. I can provide receipts for any cash donations.
2. Mail me a check – Checks should be made out to “WorldVision 30 Hour Famine”.
3. PayPal (via Bank Account only)

Again, please contact me for more detailed contact information.

WorldVision allows for online donations but they cannot be attributed to our group. I certainly do not want to discourage you from donating in the least, but please donate through me if at all possible.

Where Does Your Money Go?

30 Hour Famine funds are used to help children throughout the world. More specifically the Quiquijana area of Peru, and the Quacha Birra area of Ethiopia. Famine funds are also used to help hurting children around the world in famine-ravaged areas like Albania, Chile, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. The amount of money that goes towards World Vision’s development projects is equal to roughly 87% of the funds they raise, with the other 13% going towards the costs of administration and management. For charitable organizations, this is one of the best ratios in the world.

What Is World Vision?

World Vision is a nonprofit, Christian relief and development organization dedicated to meeting the needs of children, families, and communities regardless of race, color, or creed. World Vision has been in existence for over 50 years. Each year, more than 80 million people in nearly 100 countries receive the hope of a brighter future through thousands of World Vision projects worldwide. For more information on World Vision, visit http://www.worldvision.org/.

This past November I lost a very close, personal friend, Judy O’Hara, to breast cancer. I met Judy through one of my best friends from college about 10 years ago and grew to know her very well through many a church activity. We sat together at church nearly every Sunday and attended several Habitat for Humanity trips. She was one of those super-warm and caring people that made you feel like you were the most important person in the room. Even when the cancer diagnosis was not good, every question of “How are you doing?” was immediately followed by “I’m fine. How are you?”. She served the dual role of siding expert and trip mom on our Habitat trips, always having an ointment, band-aid or hug for anyone in need.

During the weekend of May 31st, I will be participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in an effort to honor cancer survivors, pay tribute to lives lost and raise money to help fight the disease. From 2pm on Saturday until 8am Sunday morning, at least one member of our six-person team, dubbed “Judy’s Angels”, will be walking the track at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA. In the process we hope to have some fun, share some laughs, and most importantly, honor & remember Judy.

Our team’s goal is to raise $1000 which puts my personal goal at about $170. Knowing that I have already hit up many a friend and co-worker this year for donations for the 30 Hour Famine, I hesitate to ask again for additional money. As I say ever year for the Famine, I am sure you all have other very important causes worthy of your financial support.

However, if you feel moved to donate, we would love the support. (Donations are tax-deductible.) Unlike World Vision, the American Cancer Society accepts online donations!

To make a donation online, visit my personal donation page.

To make a donation via check, make the check payable to “American Cancer Society” and mail to the following address: 124 Park St SE, Vienna, VA 22180

Thanks so much for your support.

Here’s a pic of Judy at her daughter’s wedding in July 2006 as well as a little more about her courtesy of the Washington Post.

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.

For the past three years, I have had the opportunity to participate in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine to raise awareness of hunger and poverty in the world and this year I’m doing it again.

This Friday, along with some junior & senior high school students from the northern Virginia area, I will participate in a 30 hour fast. From 1:00pm on Friday till 7:00pm on Saturday, I will go without any food, snacks, or candy, getting just a glimpse of the hunger pangs some 800 million people feel each day.

The stats and facts related to hunger & starvation throughout the world are stunning. Here are the three simplest:

• 29,000 people die every day from starvation
• $1 is enough to feed a child for a day ($30 for a month, $360 for a year)
• It’s not a problem of quantity. The world produces 2800 calories of food per day for each person on the planet. (A regular diet calls for about 2000 calories.)

As it has been every year, my personal goal is to raise enough money to sponsor a child for an entire year… that’s $360.

If you are interested in making a donation, I would love the support. I am a little late in the game this year only having one week to raise the money. All donations are tax deductible and every little bit counts. Even $5 or $10 buys a week’s worth of food.

Great ways to get me money:

• Give or mail me cash
• Give or mail me a check made out to “WorldVision 30 Hour Famine”
• Send me money via PayPal (Use my gmail or Mindshare address)

I can provide you with receipts as necessary for any donations.

Unfortunately in this day and age, WorldVision does not allow for donations to be made online. Most of the donation methods above assume that you have all of my pertinent contact information. I always hesitate to put personal contact info on this blog so if you need to contact me and do not know how, please use this contact form.

For more information on WorldVision and where your money goes, please check out their website: www.worldvision.org.

Thanks for reading.