Just this weekend I was musing with my husband about how I was struggling to work more bike advocacy into my life, as I have already committed to another cause. Separately, I was musing about how I could use my passion for bike advocacy to benefit said other cause – and voila! An idea was born.
I volunteer as the State Coordinator for Friends of the World Food Program, overseeing WFP Committees throughout the state. Obviously, the devastation in Haiti has pushed thousands of already food-insecure citizens into a dire situation. The World Food Program is already facing a severe funding shortfall due to the ailing economy and is struggling to meet ever-increasing needs. There are a number of wonderful charities out there collecting on behalf of Haiti and if you have already donated–wonderful and thank you! If you have not, I entreat you to read on.
I choose to give my time and money to WFP because they are the first on the ground in an emergency and the last to leave. They are a highly-efficient organization and provide food assistance in many places that other organizations will not go. It has been said that you can’t build peace on an empty stomach and thus, for me personally, global hunger is “my cause.”
By now I’m sure you’re wondering what this has to do with my blog. As is already obvious I’m sure, I’m trying to raise money for WFP. However, in understanding that you may be reading this blog because biking is your thing, I thought I would try to come up with some incentives to encourage you to donate to WFP. I’ve set a goal of raising $2,500 (in honor of my 25% mileage goal), so I need to pull out all the stops!
So I’m going to sell myself, in a manner of speaking. Each donation you make can “buy” a bike-advocacy action from me. Below is a series of bike-related advocacy items that you can encourage me to participate in by donating to WFP. It’s like double the bang for your good-deed-doing buck–you get to help those in need and push for more bike advocacy!
Menu of items:
$10 -I will make a phone call to one politician about a bike-related issue.
$25 -I will write a letter to one policitian about a bike-related issue.
$50 – I will make a face-to-face appointment with one politician about a bike-related issue.
$100 – I’ll not only visit a politician, but for this donation amount I’ll make the guarantee that I will go by bike.
Now, to make it perfectly clear that the “selling myself” part is tongue-in-cheek, I want to clarify: you don’t get to pick the bike issue or the politician I contact. I will contact politicians in my own district at the local, state, and federal levels to maximize impact. I do have ethical standards, after-all! I’m hoping that my potential action is an incentive for you to donate and, similarly, your donation will serve as an incentive for me to spend more energy on advocacy efforts related to bike and sustainable transportation issues. Donations can be monitored on my fundraising page (listed below) and I’ll post updates on my advocacy efforts here so you can keep me honest.
If you just want to send in some money, that’s great, too! I encourage you to give generously and give often. And whatever “your cause,” thank you for all that you do to make the world a better place.
To donate, please visit my fundraising page at mycampaign.kintera.org/4onaQuarter. After you have entered your information, you will be brought to a screen where you can designate an “in support of” for your donation. If you would like to make your donation in support of a specific action item (as listed above), please be sure to enter that here. You also have the option of your donation showing as anonymous, should you so choose.
P.S. Got another advocacy menu item suggestion? Let me know! Also, please feel free to share this post with any family or friends that might be interested.
I’m going to pledge $100. I know a nice route to downtown.
you are so cute. Put me down for 10
I think this is a very clever combination of good-good. Fundraising for a good cause while doing good work. You go, Angie.
Totally unrelated but something we emailed about earlier. Matt at Tacoma Bike Ranch has finished his DIY rain cover for his Madsen. Check out his last posts for info: http://tacomabikeranch.blogspot.com/
I have one I made out of a two-person tent. I have pics somewhere. I’ll trust Angie to post them at some point!
It does not look nearly as wonderful as Matt’s. But I found a way to make it portable while taking up minimal space.
It’s a tent, complete with tent poles. It’s held together with tension, just like a star. The poles are constantly pushing up, wanting to pop out (as they’re bent over with the tips in each corner of the bucket). The cover (a modified tent) is strapped down, constantly pushing down on the poles. I only need a nice way to hold that onto the bucket. Right now it’s a road-bike inner tube cut and tied to the right tension to fit around the bike.
You’ll see. But the portability of it has come in very handy. I am forgetful, and rain just surprises you sometimes anyway. So, even just in the past couple months, there have been a few times that I was extremely thankful to put it up.
Once there are pics up, you’ll see. It’s a super easy modification, too, which takes only a small tent and a inner tube.
Most awesome part of all is that the tent poles shove in that little hole right above the back fender. The only storage is for the cover and tube, which fold up to about the size of a small purse.
Hopefully, someone as crafty and talented as the tacomabikeranchers will take this and make it look nice.
@Jesse & Paula – thank you both so much!! You can actually process your donation through the link listed above. I’ve already got some good ideas for my bikey efforts!
@sara Thanks!! By the way, can I just tell you how amazed I am that you were in the Peace Corps?? Totally blows my mind.
And yes, I did see that! So cool! I will try to get up pictures of our set-up this weekend.
donated the other day! I expect some updates