Next Monday morning we head out on our cross-country journey, with a full video itinerary that you saw in yesterday's message.
Many of you have been so generous to support our eco-video project with a donation, and we are truly grateful for that! When we began planning this project last June I was expecting our funding to come largely from companies sponsoring us, those many 'green' companies that support eco-actions. When the economy took a turn for the worse last fall the money companies spent on supporting eco-projects disappeared. Fortunately for us several companies/groups have supported us regardless, including Verenium and Sudbury Earth Decade. So Carrick and I have hit the road over the last 9 months giving presentations about our upcoming project and handing out fliers at fairs and conferences. We collected names and emails from hundreds of people who want to follow our cross-country video adventure.
If you haven't done so already, I'm asking you now to please consider donating to support our cross-country eco-video project. It is only with the support of people like you that we will be successful! Since we began planning for this last June we have been so fortunate to receive much great promotion in the media - locally, regionally, and nationally. With days left before we leave we have a huge momentum of publicity and supporters for what we're trying to accomplish.
I hate asking for money. I'm no salesperson. No doubt you are feeling the effects of the economy like everyone else. All I can say is that this is the most important action I have taken on in my lifetime, we are in the position to make a tremendous impact in a way that nobody has done before, and we need your support to be successful. I'm not asking for you to give us money to go on a 2-month vacation. Yesterday's list of destinations makes that very clear - we will be working hard for 2 months to create our eco-video series! What I didn't mention in that destination list are all the presentations we are giving along the way in addition to the video work. At some point we'll need to get some sleep :)
So here is where we stand, financially. With the generous support of many family and friends, we have raised at this point $9,000. I was originally shooting for $20,000 as a fundraising goal. Our absolute bare minimum that we need for the two months is $14,000. We'll raise part of that through donations at presentations on the road, but I know we will still come up short. I have to stress that we are not profiting from this eco-video project, that we are distributing our videos free to schools and of course all available online free as well. The people and ideas, renewable energy and sustainable living, are too important not to get out into the mainstream in as big a way as possible.
If you are willing to make a donation to support our project, you can do so in two ways. First, if you go to our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org, you can make a donation online through PayPal. It's easy and safe to do. If you would feel more comfortable sending a check by mail instead, please make out the check to my name at:
Colin McCullough
66 Buttonwood Avenue
Sutton, MA 01590
My in-laws live closeby and will be taking care of the mail for us, so if you send a check and we've left on our journey already then they'll be able to deposit the check in the bank for us.
Believe me, I've been really worried all along that the financial part of this project would keep us from moving forward. Jen and I talked about a number of different possibilities, like doing half the trip one year, then the other half the next, etc. In the end we decided that what we're doing is too timely to delay - this kind of thing needs to happen sooner rather than later. So we are going on faith that it will all work out. Faith and the support of many, many generous people. Any donation, big or small, will help us.
Many thanks to you for your continued support,
Colin, Jen, Carrick, and Gareth McCullough
www.OurRenewableNation.org
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