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Thank You!!!


Check out charity:water's message below as well as this video message from Generosity Water and Sevenly!

https://www.sevenly.org/ThankYouVideo

See it here »   The holidays are almost here, and we just wanted to say thank you for another incredible year so far. We're so inspired by you, our amazing supporters who believe in the mission of charity: water and keep us going every day. We're especially blown away by the quirky, nerdy, bold and adventurous things our fundraisers do to bring clean water where it's needed most. Because of you, millions of families are drinking clean water every day. We made this video to celebrate all of you and how you're helping us change the world. Thank you for joining our movement to solve the world water crisis. --the charity: water team Blog  |   charitywater.org

200 Varick Street, Suite 201, New York, NY 10014

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A Fun Post...Up, Up, and AWAY!
Lift Your House with Balloons By Movoto Real Estate

So this Thanksgiving and the holidays to come have put an extra amount of hope in my life and a little bit of an extra bounce in my step.  I have a more "playful" side that I do not share much on this blog, so since many are taking advantage of a day off from work today, I have also decided to take a respite and share a smile.

I work for an industrial gas company, one of those companies that inflates many of the huge parade balloons for events like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  While doing some research, I stumbled across the above tool.

So, I am a big fan of Pixar films and in some ways I feel I have never grown up and in others I feel that I never really want to anyway.  As such, I really enjoyed the Academy Award-nominated film UP and enjoyed the whimsy and determination featured throughout the film.

In that spirit...someone took to actually trying to lift their house off the ground with helium balloons.  To see how that turned out, check out the story here: http://betabeat.com/2012/11.

Otherwise, have some fun and send along a smile today.  A smile provides can provide hope each day and is also one of my favorite types of worship.

Transparency in Fundraising


For my birthday, on April 18th, I asked people to donate to providing clean water projects around the world through charity:water.

Only a few months later, charity:water has come back to report how the money is being used.  They will continue to provide updates in the up and coming future.

Check out the first update and how charity:water approaches transparency of donated funds during this campaign.  Do you feel like you are part of the story?

Hurricane Sandy: An Anecdote

My neighborhood...

“Am I really home?”

“Yes”

“But it’s so…different!”

            “Change happens quickly…”

            The hum of generators and windows lit singly by candles reminds me that this is not the world I left only a week ago…

            I returned home to New Jersey yesterday evening after being away for a week.  I weathered the storm only two hours north in Connecticut, where damage to the inland parts was actually quite minimal.

            Because of this, I was not exactly ready for my return.  I had been receiving updates from family, friends, and coworkers through numerous social media channels as to the happenings within the borders of NJ.  Compounded with that were the images on the news.  We are all familiar with the stories.  I have customers from work calling me from Oregon to ask me whether the sand has washed into Newark yet.  It’s an attempt at humor packed into a greater statement of concern that the NJ shorelines could actually change landscape within just a few hours.

            Packed with all this knowledge from the past few days, I embarked on my mission to leave my life of full power and hot showers in CT and head toward what was being described to me as a wasteland.  I departed with good intentions, hearing of the tremendous lines for just a few gallons of this liquid gold that comes in the form of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen bonds: gasoline.  I formulated a plan to clear as much space in my car by folding down the seats and loading my luggage into the passenger seat.  Following that, I drove to Home Depot and asked customer service for 8 jerry cans.  The representative gives me the briefest of smirks and then takes off her glasses to reveal eyes that look into mine with something that I can only interpret as sympathy.  She says that they are cleaned out, and there is something in the way she says it that lets me know that she tells this to many individuals each day.  Calling upon my experience in supply chain and realizing that Hurricane Sandy has broken the chain of reliability, I quickly calculate that this situation is not going to change for quite a while. So I stroll back to my car and rack my brains of how to work around this issue.  I feel defeated, like a hunter does when he comes home with just a bow and no arrows or food.

            I top off my tank with about $15.00 of gas, not really sure when my next visit to a station will be.  I embark on the journey and decide to take the route through NYC just to get a feeling of how things were doing.  I weaved my way down through Yonkers and the Bronx before hugging the parkway that runs along the Hudson River.  I finally arrive at one of the most grandiose structures in NYC, the George Washington Bridge.  I corkscrew my way through many on-ramps until I finally reach the bridge, and my experience in crossing the Hudson is over in 2-3 minutes. You see, there is something wrong with that picture.  Never again will I cross the Hudson at 5pm on a weekday without investing at least 20 minutes of life into such an endeavor.  So what was my overall impression of NYC? It was not the yet dark enough to see all the lights come out (or stay out) and so I did not observe the contrast between Upper and Lower Manhattan.  In fact, I did not even observe any trees that toppled over, disrupting the flow of life.  In fact, I saw minimal flow, period.  Where were all the people? Compounding minimal public transit plus gas supply issues were keeping people in their homes.

            My next story involves what I saw after I crossed the GW Bridge.  As I snaked my way onto the NJ Turnpike, there is a stretch for about ¾ of a mile that consists of only gas stations.  I heard the stories of gas lines and I anticipated the traffic back-up.  Instead, I zipped right by Mobil, Valero, Citgo, Gulf, Shell without a single customer, cones blocking any entrance into these stations.  I saw the flashing blue lights of a few police cars at a couple of stations and was wondering what their purpose may be. My only guess was possibly a drug bust for a rendezvous of a few unsuspecting individuals.

            The last part of my trip commenced with very little issue until I finally got within 5 miles of my community.  I pulled off the highway just at the time that the weather channel told me was sunset.  It was a cloudy day, so I could not confirm, but darkness was setting in.  I drove to the end of the on-ramp and the traffic light looked down at me with a hollow face.  “I thought Halloween was yesterday,” I thought to myself.  Non-functional traffic lights were being treated as 3-way and 4-way stops, so I continued on my way, only to be caught in a gas line that stretched out into the main road, blocking my progress.  I pulled a U-turn and went the other way hoping to skate around the traffic, but I was blocked by a tree. Realizing backroads were out of the question, I resigned to get back on the highway and take the track that was 5 miles longer but was sure to have no obstructions.  It is here in the story that I find Chuck E. Cheese’s.

            Yes, the arcade place, reportedly one of the few convenient places where the power is on and the kids are happy.  School has been out all week as I finally see that the nights are dark and many roads are still in repair of some sort.  Because there is no school, my cousin’s kids need an outlet of some sort.  Thankfully they get to win the grand Prix, become the next Rock Star, and show off their champion Skee Ball skills instead of chewing on erasers and figuring out long division.

            Finally, after this excursion, I begin my trek home.  By this point, I am used to the hollow faces of the streetlights and as I turn into my community, it finally hits me.  I am able to navigate the roads just fine, but there is a tree down every 2-3 houses. And I am not talking bushes, I am talking trees.  It’s like the angels went bowling and got bored in heaven, so they decided to try their hand on Earth. I think they did a pretty good job.  I wonder who got the high score.  Well whoever picked NJ as their bowling lane sure did a good job. When I finally park my car in the driveway, I see that I have 3 immediate neighbors with this tree problem and as I step out, I hear it.  It sounds like everyone is mowing their lawns, except it is pitch black and it’s November so the grass sure ain’t growin’.  I step inside the house and my uncle hands me a flashlight.  “Seven to ten days,” he says to me as I take the light from him.  I don’t have to ask for clarification.  I understand what this means…

…the stories don’t end here.