Recently I have done a couple fundraising events in my localish area to raise money for my climbing trip to Yosemite next fall. I am actually raising money to get the rest of the team there so I will have everyone I need to pull this climb off. My travel is already covered because I am doing an internship in Palo Alto, CA this summer for a company called FXPAL. I will of course still need lodging and food while I am in the valley which is part of the fundraiser but also I need 15 people to pull this off. Granted some of the people were already planning to be in the valley so they are covering their own costs as they will be there to carry me to the base of the climb and carry me out but will be free to enjoy the valley for the rest of the time they are there. I still want to help with some of their expenses of course but the climbing team is what I am focused on right now to make sure we have a good core team on the wall ready to go.
Another reason I am going to do this climb and why it is so important for me to get there and make this happen is that I am raising money for two organizations that help people like me and others with disabilities achieve their goals and dreams. I want this to be about something bigger than myself and having fun on a wall but more about making other individuals dreams come true in the process. The two organizations are Paradox Sports and Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England. Paradox Sports as I have mentioned many times before in my blog is an organization that provides opportunities for disabled people to experience human powered sports. SBAGNE is an organization in New England that provides opportunities for people with Spina Bifida like me to achieve their goals and also provides education about this birth defect. I am going to be doing a pennies for pull ups fundraiser while I am on the climb. We are doing pennies because it will be about 2000-3000 pull ups to get to the top of the climb and pledging much more than a penny might hurt peoples wallets haha. Feel free to go big if you would like though.
So the past couple fundraisers have had a pretty low turnout for one reason or another. We have still managed to raise $300 toward the trip. I am also working out some of the kinks in my presenting skills and some that are due to technology. I will be doing two more fundraisers in Connecticut and New York before I leave on June 18th. I do have a Paypal account which people may donate and I will post the link at the bottom or I should have a Kickstarter page up and running hopefully by the end of June and am planning to offer different rewards for different levels of donation. So stay tuned for that. I will announce it in my blog as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
I truly want to thank Salt Pump Climbing and International Mountain Equipment for allowing me to host fundraisers at their facilities. I couldn’t have done it without their help. I also want to thank all the people that have stepped up to help. I say in my presentation that nothing happens without help and it truly shows in the help I have received.
Links of Interest:
Paradox Sports: www.paradoxsports.org
SBAGNE: http://sbagreaterne.org/
Enock’s Paypal Donation Link: paypal.me/Eglidden
FXPAL: http://www.fxpal.com/
Salt Pump Climbing: http://www.saltpumpclimbing.com/
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