#SQLRun Support Rob and Karen in the Portland Half Marathon

May 31, 2011 // by Karen Lopez // Blog, Fun, Need Your Help, Travel // 1 Comment

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Rob and I will be running the Portland Half Marathon (that’s 13.1 miles) on 9 October 2011. We’ve even created a hashtag, #SQLRun , to help follow our plans and races. Other #SQLRun participants will be using it, too. You can help us by donating and being part of our scream team.

Donate

As part of our entry, we must raise at least $1500 for a charity, Ray of Hope. We chose this charity because:

It’s a small charity. No multi-million dollar advertising campaign, no lawsuits to enforce their alleged trademark on certain colours, no primetime commercials.
They are program-oriented. There are no spew of pink/green/bluewashing third party products in weak fund raising schemes, no celebrity endorsements, no product deals with companies hoping to make their products look better. They don’t pay any salaries at all, just a tiny budget for office supplies and marketing.
They need our help. With such a tiny budget, I imagine that our data community could make a huge difference in what programs they are able to deliver. With almost all your donation going to programs (see below), you personally can make a big difference in someone’s life.
Let’s just say that Kenya is well-known for their running expertise. We will be drawing upon our inner Kenyans to complete this race.

A great fit for us in that we I love fund raising for causes where the charity meets those requirements and they sound as if they could use some help getting more of their programs in the field. I’d love to blow the top off our fundraising goal for them.

From the Ray of Hope website:

What does your contribution to Ray of Hope provide for our programs in Kenya?

$20 Gives labor support and nourishment to a woman delivering at the Bware Maternity Center

$25 Water for one week at the ROH Clinic and Learning Center in Kawangware

$50 School supplies for one primary school classroom per term

$100 Monthly salary for an HIV/AIDS Outreach worker in Kawangware

$250 Cost of a Girls Empowerment Seminar for 100 girls in a rural community

$750 Full year sponsorship for one student at a secondary boarding school

$1200 Cost of a 6,000 L water harvesting tank and roof gutters at a primary school

You can see how even a small donation can make a difference.

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Be on our Scream Team

What if you aren’t able to donate at this time? We’ll, we’d love to have you on our scream team, either in person or virtually. As we get ready for this race, we’ll be training and running local races to help whip us into shape…at least in shape enough to finish the race upright and smiling. Your virtual shout outs on Twitter and Facebook will mean a lot to us and the other #SQLRun participants. So when you see our Fitbit, Runkeeper, Runmeter, Nike+ , Garmin or other data collection/reporting status updates "cluttering" our timelines, remember that we are training for a very long run as well as raising money for a great cause. Tell your community members running #SQLRun that you support them in their efforts.

If you are going to be in Portland the weekend of 8-9 Octobers (remember, there’s a Portland SQLSaturday on 8 October), you can come downtown Portland to cheer us on. The race has a cut off of 8 hours, but we don’t expect to take nearly that long Smile . All the #SQLRun participants would LOVE to see you on the side the course, cheering them on.

You can be part of our team by running, walking, fund raising, donating, cheering our training or cheering for us during the race. Just do it. (Apologies to Nike).

Tags: #SQLRun, Donation, Portland

1 Comment

Donate to #SQLRun and Be Famous | InfoAdvisors' Blog 27 June 2011 at 2:26 PM

[...] you have donated to our SQLRun fund raising for the Portland, OR-based Ray of Hope Charity, we will put our thanks to you on our blog. First, we’re going to recognize you by [...]

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