Posted by TeamCharlie on December 29, 2008 under Kids are Heroes | 
On February 12, 2008 I happened to be flipping channels on the tube and came across an interview that Charlie Rose did with Richard Branson. I am not normally interested in what celebrities have to say, but I found this interview to be absolutely fascinating. One of the main topics he discussed was “social entrepreneurship” which basically means that instead of just throwing charitable money at an issue that faces mankind, that we instead use our ingenuity to solve problems. As an example, there are places in Africa where it is difficult to get medicines out to people. So rather than throwing money at a courier company, a better answer is to send them bicycles so they can deliver the medicine themselves. There are many business owners who have developed successful businesses because of their savvy, determination and their skills. The idea is that we put those qualities to good use. Richard Branson himself is an incredibly successful business magnate, owning upwards of 200 companies and employing over 55,000 people. I also think he is a leading example of a social entrepreneur, as he created Virgin Unite that tries to involve people all over the world in philanthropic ventures.
As many of you know, this was one of the main inspirations for Kids Are Heroes, since after watching this I wanted to see what skills I could use for the benefit of others. I honestly believe that in the not too distant future Kids Are Heroes will be a significant force in helping people all over the world and I attribute part of that credit to this interview. So, if you ever get about 33 minutes to spare (I know that’s a lot especially for the “twitterati” out there) I encourage you to watch it online - it might change your life as it did mine.
Posted by TeamCharlie on December 23, 2008 under Kids are Heroes |
I just recently posted about what my Twitter friend Laura is doing to try and help solve clean water issues around the world. That was interesting to me because two of our heroes from Kids Are Heroes are working on the same problem – one of them, Ryan Hreljac, has been doing it for ten years since he was 7 years old! (See www.ryanswell.ca) According to Ryan, there are 1 billion people in this world without clean water. But the solution is quite simple and that is to build wells. This morning I got an email from Richard Branson. Ok I admit it wasn’t directly from him, it was from his Virgin Unite initiative which is a company he formed to get people all over the world involved in solving our world’s problems. Apparently he sees this issue as a serious one as well. He is offering to donate $1. to Jewel’s Project Clean Water if you simply upload a photo of thanks to their web site. Their cap is 5000, but let’s just make sure they hit this mark. (Here is the link.)
So that makes three charities to which I have been recently introduced all working for the common cause – to bring clean water to people all over the world. We sure do take this for granted in our households. I would love to see other kids from our web site get involved in this initiative so that we too can join the fray and make a bigger impact. To see more inspiring stories about this issue, check out these videos: http://www.citytv.com/edmonton/yourcity_64597.aspx and this one:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWk2_LZ1zFM]
Posted by TeamCharlie on December 21, 2008 under Kids are Heroes |
All this “FaceBooking” and “Twittering” and “FMO Talking” has helped me to not only get out there and meet other people (I admit that these are “virtual meetings”, but still better than a kick in the head) and promote Kids Are Heroes, but it is also helping me to discover other incredible people and causes as well. I just found Laura Fitton who is leveraging the social networking technology to benefit a wonderful cause called Charity Water. This touches my heart not only on its own value, but because it is similar to what two of our heroes, Ryan Hreljac and Finn Case are championing. Check it out before Christmas if you can.
Posted by TeamCharlie on under Wags for Hope |
Since both Wags for Hope and Kids Are Heroes presented to the Kiwanis of Suburban Frederick a couple of times this year, we have become good friends. Many of the Kiwanis people have been volunteering for well over thirty years. They meet every single week which is even more amazing. It is rare that you find as open and friendly a bunch of people. They asked me if Charlie would appear at a Keys game to help attract people to their table. He happily obliged and of course it worked – “like buddah”. They also asked if we would help with the gift wrapping season. Every year their major fundraiser is having volunteers wrap gifts at the mall for donations. They have to invest in a wrapping paper and other accessories, so it takes a while for them to simply break even. With the economy dipping this year, they were fearful of the results. So they thought that if there was a dog there from time to time then we might bring more people over to their stations. I put out the word to the Wags folks about this opportunity. They responded in droves. So far I see on the schedule that 46 pet teams have committed to at least 92 hours – and many stay over the allotted time because it is so much fun.
I had done this last week with Charlie. Yes we got plenty of visitors, and when people asked why we were there I explained that we were just trying to get more people to wrap their gifts. There was no way to quantify how much of an impact we were making. Yesterday I was scheduled to go back with Charlie. Team Emma Jean (English Bulldog) was there. Emma Jean is not happy unless she is dressed for the occasion. Donning her festive collar and flashing reindeer horns, she was ready for anything. Her owner Terry came up with the ingenious idea to charge $1.00 for “Kisses for Kiwanis”. When I got there she raised over $70.00! She stayed on during my shift and people started giving me money as well. One person handed me a ten dollar bill! Thanks to Terry I think we have a new plan for next year.
Posted by TeamCharlie on December 19, 2008 under Social Media |
Have you ever tried to drink from a fire hose? That’s what I feel like when I started down the road of investigating just some of the social networking options out there. I attend our Chamber of Commerce meetings whenever I can which in my mind is one of the best ways to do it – reason being is that it is personal. I am the type of person who is that last one to “get it” when it comes to understanding the benefit of things. For example, when Windows for Workgroups (any of you tech weenies remember that?) came out I asked myself why anyone would want to connect to another computer? ‘Nuff said. So I am forcing my way through this even though I am constantly puzzled as I muddle around. I was told about Ning.com, Twitter of course, and most recently Facebook. Not to mention Stumbleupon, Digg and a few others. My new theory is that even though I don’t get it yet, I will if I keep trying and when I finally have that magical epiphany I will be that much ahead of the game.
The main reasons I want to get out there are twofold. First is to raise awareness for KidsAreHeroes.com and MaryMargaret’s Music for Life! project, and secondarily to help some of the other heroes from the KidsAreHeroes site. There are SO many really heartwarming stories that kids are out there creating and I think it is extremely important to encourage them. When Ryan Hreljac was just seven years old, he was told by his teacher about the unclean conditions in third world countries. He learned about children and mothers having to walk six hours to get dirty water, sometimes twice daily. This prevents the children from attending school and due to the resulting diseases also makes them orphans. Well Ryan couldn’t understand why he could walk just a few steps to get clean water and someone else had to walk six hours just to get dirty water. He persisted and worked for a year until he collected $2000.00 which was enough to buy his first well in Uganda. Ryan is 17 now, and “Ryan’s Wells” has dug 461 wells in 16 countries and is serving 600,000 people to date. This is just one example of the power that children have. So this is why we want to encourage and help them.
So it is back to figuring out the best way to get their messages out to other people…
