Yesterday, I was stuck on an airplane for most of the day. As I got ready for my trip, still intent on winning America’s Giving competition and half delirious with lack of sleep in my attempts to do just that, I imagined what amazing things could happen if all the people on a single plane collaborated to commit a single act of kindness.

So I decided to conduct a little social experiment, let’s call it the “Friendly Skies Experiment,” to find out how many people I could get on an airplane to do a random act of kindness for a stranger - in this case, the act being to make a $10 donation to Epic Change toward the rebuilding of Shepherds Junior school.

My game plan was simple: go up to each passenger who wasn’t otherwise occupied, ask them if they wanted to participate in my experiment and give them the following information card:

So once we hit an altitude of 30,000 feet (and I shook off a bad case of fear), I got up and went to the back of the plane to start my little experiment. I started off well, but let’s just say that the airline didn’t quite approve of my unorthodox approach. A flight attendant took me aside, actually to the flight attendant station and asked me if I was soliciting and if I had permission to do what I was doing. I explained that I wasn’t soliciting, that I was “experimenting,” and speaking only to those passengers who were otherwise unoccupied and who agreed to participate in my experiment. I added my personal philosophy that, in cases like this, “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.” This particular flight attendant said okay, “experiment away”.

After handing out about 5 of the cards I’d prepared, the purser asked to speak to me, and requested that I conclude my experiment. Another flight attendant present said that my little experiment could qualify as a form of harassment. (Actually, the Ricky Martin sales pitch on the overhead projection system seemed more like solicitation and harassment to me, but I digress . . .) Of course, I immediately complied. I wasn’t trying to create a scene, just to come to a scientific conclusion to what I still think is a fairly interesting question: What if the free time individuals use on a plane twiddling thumbs could be directed toward discussing and taking small steps to address any single issue? The world might just be a lot better place.

So, the “Friendly Skies Experiment” was cut short, although I still wonder what the outcome might have been. I’m actually extremely proud of my fearlessness too; I think I’ve proven once and for all (as if my international Yentl impersonation wasn’t enough), I’ll do whatever it takes to make certain this school gets built.

Yep, anything - go ahead, double dog dare me.

Posted: January 31st, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: none

We got a note from Mama Lucy recently and wanted to share a few pics of how construction of the new Shepherds Junior school is coming along. It truly is incredible what she’s been able to accomplish in 30 days with just $30,000. We’ve even learned that she’s tapped water on the land, which is incredibly exciting!

It’s often said that things happen “Pole, pole” in Africa - Swahili for slowly, slowly. (Notably, “pole” also means I’m sorry for you!) Mama Lucy, though, somehow manages to consistently move “haraka, haraka” (hurry, hurry!). This is a woman on a mission.

Posted: January 28th, 2008 under Updates from Mama.
Comments: 1

Many of you have suggested that we write to Ellen DeGeneres to ask for her help with Epic Change, and I think it’s a swell idea. So we made this special, limited edition video blog entry just for Ellen. I promise this will be the only video you’ll see today (and, if we’re lucky, ever) that features me singing Barbra Streisand and Sanjay in pigtails, and includes the words “pie,” “Tanzania” and “rad” - don’t miss this awesome opportunity to mock us openly by clicking on our YouTube video below.

Feel free to give us a few extra hits by clicking “refresh” a couple times too. Once you’ve had the opportunity to regain your composure, I hope you’ll take a couple minutes and help us out with these 5 easy steps to help us get the word to Ellen:

1. Pass this email on to EVERYONE in your address book. Even if you’ve already forwarded our other emails, trust us, they’ll want to see this. :)

5. If you haven’t yet given, click here to contribute just $10 yourself.

I know you may have to sign up for YouTube and Digg accounts to help us out, which may take you 5 minutes, but it’s totally FREE, and definitely worth it as it really helps spread the word across the Internet. Of course, if you have any other imaginative ways to get the word to Ellen, please take creative license and run with it. America’s Giving Challenge ends at 3PM on January 31st, so we need to find as many new donors as possible before then.

With your help, I just know we can win.

Pass it on.

Posted: January 25th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 1

It’s 3AM, and it’s a shame my physical body has limitations, because right now every fiber of my being wants to keep working for the next 3 weeks straight. Unfortunately, my business partner Sanjay says such long hours make me cranky and ineffective. And, while I don’t mind being grumpy, I’ve got to be effective.

In any case, I refuse to lose America’s Giving Challenge over a little thing like sleep. For those of you who don’t know, or who’ve arrived here because of today’s great story in the Florida Today, right now Epic Change is working on America’s Giving Challenge: in short, if we can sign up the greatest number of individual $10 donors before January 31, we could win $50,000 from The Case Foundation. $50,000 is an enormous amount of money, and would help us make significant progress toward building the new school.

If a woman in a third world country can build an incredible school for 170 kids from scratch using the money from her poultry business, I can sure find a way to get a few hundred people to give me $10 each to help her out. BUT I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!! Not only do I need your donations, but, more importantly, I need you to reach out to every single person you’ve ever met. It’s just ten bucks, and it only takes ten minutes to go online and donate here, and then email everyone in your address book with the link and a personal note.

While I’ve lived across the country in DC, San Francisco and other big cities, I can’t tell you right now how grateful I am to be right here at home in Satellite Beach. Not only did the local paper do a fantastic job covering our story, but I just know that my small community will band together to help out this hometown girl and the amazing kids at Shepherds Junior.

For the record, here’s the current Score:

Epic Change – 80 donors
“Winners Circle” - 216 donors (and growing)

So, 136 to go as of today. We’ve got miles to go before we sleep.

Please help.

TODAY.

Posted: January 13th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: none

Happy New Year!! I made it home to Florida on Christmas Eve, and have since been enjoying some much needed downtime over the holidays with my family and friends. Of course, while I rested, Mama Lucy has continued to work at breakneck speed. A few days ago, she forwarded this blog entry to keep us updated on her amazing progress:

“This is incredible! It’s unbelievable to me. The dark days of almost a year now have changed to bright days with good hope for Shepherds Junior thanks to the efforts of Epic Change.

The month of December 2007 has so many things to be remembered and cheered for.

• With the loan provided by Epic Change, we were able to purchase about an acre of land and begin construction of the new school! The land is beautiful with a stream on the property and it is conveniently located to many of our current students who live near that area.

• On 15th Dec, the architect and an engineer visited the land. The architect was able to finalize the blueprints on 18th Dec, and the work of digging the foundation for 4 classrooms started on 19th Dec.

• As the land has many banana trees, clearing the property for building and for the access road to the site was not an easy task. It took more than 4 days to clear the site for initial construction and we are still trying to make it better.

• While some were busy with the work of building classrooms, others continued with the work of building a small bridge across the stream so that the construction trucks can easily reach the building site.

• We built a storage room for keeping building materials such as cement etc. in 3 days.

• Now we’ve laid 3 rows of bricks for 2 classrooms!

As you can see from some photos, the work is quite encouraging! Special thanks to those who made their donation to Epic Change which made all these possible. While we’re making progress, we still need your support so as to achieve our goal of completing necessary buildings.

Thank you so very much for your continuing support. I’ll continue to inform you of our progress!”

We hope you’re as excited as we are to see what we’ve been able to accomplish together our non-profit status was approved by the IRS in September. In less than four short months, we’ve raised nearly $30,000, made our first loan to purchase the land and have started construction; thanks from the bottom of my heart for all of your help in 2007! With your continued support, 2008 promises even more success . . . I can’t wait to see what this year holds for Leah, Naomi, Glory, Gideon and all of the beautiful kids at Shepherds. As we begin the new year, we’ll be sharing more of their incredible stories here, so stay tuned . . .

Posted: January 1st, 2008 under Updates from Mama.
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