So I've been busy lately with a little fund-raising goal of mine. I love goals, that feeling of focus, that brain-storming of ways to get to what you want to do. Truth is, I feel a little lost unless I want something that feels possible, but just a little out of reach at the moment.
Hmmmm...lesseee...there is a billion cents in $1 million dollars. There are 20 million nickels and 10 million dimes in $1 million dollars. Clearly, if I'm nickel and diming my way to fortune it might take a while to make a million dollars.
However, right at this moment in time, fresh from my visit to Childhaven in Nepal, I'm only concentrating on raising the money for a very specific goal: my friend Hritika's education fund.
I figure that six thousand dollars will go a long way in Nepal towards helping her, and although I don't actually know what the final amount of money she will need to get through school, I figure this is a contribution that I can commit to. And I know it will make a difference. I love that.
Right now, I'm telling everyone I know about this goal because that is one way I know to make something happen. Mostly, right now, I am asking people for donations of junk and stuff that I can sell on Craigslist and in garage sales because that is such a comfortable way for me to raise money by now. I've been doing it to fund my travel since my first trip in 1999.
My base goal is to raise one hundred dollars a month this way to put aside for Hritika: twelve hundred dollars a year. So far, so good: I made $132 selling stuff in January that would probably have gone to the landfill otherwise. Everything was five bucks or under and I STILL made my goal and then some.
Since she has only just turned sixteen , I figure that by the time she is eighteen years old, I will have enough put aside to get her started JUST from doing that.
But my real hope (positive thinking here) is that serendipity will come along and help me out. It already has actually. Twice this past month. And one thing led to another.
The first thing that happened was that my father woke up one night from a Compelling Dream telling him that a certain piece of valuable but never-seen or worn jewelery currently residing in a safe deposit box should be sold and the money given to Hritika's family. And he's decided to DO just that.....
To say that my jaw nearly hit the floor when my mother told me the news is an understatement. WOW. Really. (You gotta know my dad...)
And THEN, the following day, full of joy and uplifted by my parents' generosity, I told the story of my dad's dream to a co-worker.
Behind me, a voice said "That's it! I've just had an epiphany!" I turned around and there was a dear sweet person from work who was mulling over what to do with an expensive ring from an ended relationship. "I'm going to sell it and give the money to the Hritika fund", she declared.
And she is! Later, I went to her and asked her if she was sure. "Yes", she said. "This is the right thing to do with it. Sometimes you get a flash of intuition and you just know..."
I am just overwhelmed. :)
6 comments:
I have bowled over at people's willingness to give, to make a difference in ther lives of others, in the last couple of years.
Good luck; I think you're going to do this!
A piece of free advice that's probably already occurred to you: since you're not giving Hritika the money for a couple years yet, put the money in a high interest ING account or something similar.
Compound interest over two years--added to an ever increasing amount as you hoard it away--will add on to your target amount and whatever amount you surpass it by (as I've no doubt you will).
Happy fundraising.
There's a safety deposit box full of loot??? Have I ever told you about the "My Darling Brother" fund!
WOW!
That is truly inspirational.
planteroftrees made me laaaaaaugh.... I've got some books to give you, with the hopes that whatever they make helps Hritika. It might not be much, but you've shown time and time again that every little bit helps to make a huge amount!
You are the kind of person who makes me believe in so much.
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