Open letter to Buffalo

I sent the following to past Buffalo volunteers....but it applies to all, so:

I wanted to inform you of a few upcoming BonaResponds events in the Buffalo area. I am sure many of you (most?) are on our mailing list, but I realize the newsletter is often too long and gets ignored. So a "special edition" for those in the Buffalo area.

We are having two events in the upcoming month that we wanted you to know about:

1. On March 27th we will be having a large event out of Villa Maria where volunteers break up and go to various sites. It is our third annual one and it has always been very successful with about 100-120 volunteers (Like all of our events, it is open to all. Also this year it is part of our first ever International Service Day where work will be going on in about 10 countries and 30+ sites in the US. Pretty excited about it actually!
http://bonaresponds.org/nsd.html

Kim and her crew of VillaVolunteers do a GREAT job and her job list this year looks amazingly good. So I hope you can come out for it! A great deal of very good work will get done and you will have fun doing it!

We will be selling t-shirts on an advance order basis ($5 each) so if you want one, please let me know size and QTY). Also we we have bracelets ($3 that feed 15 Haitians each), and raffle tickets to win Sabres Tickets at the event.

While you can just show up and work, signing up in advance makes life MUCH easier!
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGdpd0hzOWZVSXhCeHFwNnRodmFSdHc6MA


2. On April 10th in Delaware Park, we will be having a 5k for Haiti as part of our FoodForHaitiNow.org push to feed 200,000 Haitians. Carrie Jackling is organizing this and it promises to be a big event to help. As a new race, we are worried about turnout. So please help spread the word. The more people we get out for it, the more we can do to help in Haiti! Even if you do not run, consider coming and volunteering or walking it. For more on this organization (basically us and a bunch of other groups from around WNY) see:
http://foodforhaitinow.org/

for the specifics on the race see:
http://haitirun.weebly.com/


I have also attached a sponsor's page in the event you know any business from Buffalo who might like to sponsor it or even if you have always wanted to see your name on a t-shirt! If you do, please email Carrie.


A full calendar of other BonaResponds events is available at http://BonaResponds.org
April 23-25 Spring Service Weekend (in Olean)
May 7-8 Allegany State Park work days with CYC.


Thanks for any and all help you can give. Seriously a forward of this email alone would be great! If you are looking for other ways to get involved, please see the FoodForHaitiNow.org website or just come out to volunteer! Or better start a fundraiser at your your school, your workplace, or with your family, you name it, involved. Haiti needs all of our help! Every dollar pays for 6 meals!


Hope to see you are either (or both!) of the events.

THANKS!!!

jim

Jim Mahar

http://BonaResponds.org
http://Twitter.com/BonaResponds
http://Twitter.com/justrespond
http://Twitter.com/jimmahar
http://FoodForHaitiNow.org



If and when I go to far with emails, I apologize, but the push on this one is very well intentioned. In the past two days (Friday and Saturday) I have been in contact with a tent village worker in Port-au-Prince and a leader of an orphanage just N of Port-au-Prince. In each case they got in touch with us and specifically asked us for assistance in what can largely be seen as life or death issues. Without your help, I must tell them to either go hungry (in the case of the orphanage) or to just wait for crutches/walkers/and tents from someone else (in the case of the tent village). So while I apologize for the email, I trust you would also send one if you knew that the impact of the events is so great! (for perspective, yesterday 16 of our volunteers packed 10 pallets for Haiti with 281 pairs of crutches, over 100 walkers, about 100 canes, 14 tents, and 7 boxes of medical supplies. Little things add up. You can and will make a difference. Thank you!)