My Trip to the Philippines

Hi everyone!

This is a bit delayed, but it took a while to get it all together-- a video blog, sort of, of my trip to the Philippines. I had wanted to post on a more real time basis, but unfortunately, technology could not allow me.

I hope you'll find some bits and pieces of it interesting. It's a spotlight on one of our partner non-profits, the Virlanie Foundation.

Enjoy.

Jericho

Let the funding begin!!!!

Check out www.tendollarinitiative.org and get your favorite projects funded!!! Share it with friends and help students from across developing countries receive access to quality education!!!

October...November...

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are doing well. I just came back from a quick errand today and was surprised how cold it has gotten from just a week ago, as if to remind me how quickly time had passed by. It's actually November and that time of the year again when we push our clocks back an hour.

And also, time for photos. :-) As you know, some of us New Yorkers spent time together just a week ago. Here's how it all went down... (haha)







Doing a little arm-twisting game here...



















Greg was figuring out something here...














It's singing time!!!


















Rainy days and Mondays...
























Hitting the notes and a 98!






















The final number.

















Thanks to Mon for the sumptuous Veggie Lasagna. Jo-Ann and Mae, thanks for the booze-- everyone should feel free to stop by anytime for a drink or two.

Moving on to some updates, which I would like to share with you...

From our individual team meetings over the past months, many of you know that we had been targeting a launch date of October 30th for our website. Many of you also probably know that there are some delays that we have been experiencing with some of our non-profit partners, our overall website development, and other things on our to-do list.

First of all, I thank everyone for taking these delays in stride and still moving as expeditiously as possible to get our website and overall processes ready.

We all look forward to start funding our local partners' school supply needs. With everyone's help and contribution, we will get there, and I am eagerly anticipating some of our projects to start receiving funding very soon.

Second, start sharing our idea to friends, family, acquaintances, and colleagues. Our foundation was built on this spirit of getting involved, even in the smallest ways. You never know who would want to help fund or projects, or be part of our team for that matter! We could always use help in all the different branches of our organization.

Third, please feel free to post any suggestions, feedback here on this blog. Share with everyone what you think about anything that interests you-- our foundation, our partners, our website... anything at all!

There are so many more things to accomplish, a lot of places to explore, and ways to grow. It's overall just nice to have been able to start something with all of you.

Enjoy the coming Holiday Season!!!!

Thank you

I would like to thank everyone for being a part of the $10 Initiative. In some shape or form you all have made it possible for us to reach this point.

Nicole, Anna C., Ainee, Jared, Grethel, Flem, George, Anna D., Greg, Cricket, Mon, Jo-Ann, Seng, Mae, Vida, Ria, Camille, Paolo, Paul, Lu, Jay, Allan, Ed, Sandra, Tara. Thank you.

Matt, Charles, Oliver, Dennis, Mumbuso, Vicky, thank you.

Attys. Bell and McCarthy, thank you.

It has been a stormy summer, but somehow everyone tried to pull through whenever they could. Thank you.

We are at the home stretch and soon enough the little idea that took off and evolved into what it is today will become a reality. I cannot wait to see that first project get fully funded by our internet users.

All the best to everyone and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Here's to the crazy ones...

Here's something Ainee sent us to inspire the creative team. I hope it will inspire you as well. It's from the 1997 Apple ad, "Think Different."

The one-minute commercial featured black and white video footage of significant historical people of the past, including (in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso. The commercial ends with an image of a young girl, Shaan Sahota, opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Goodluck!!!

I just want to send a special hello to our teachers (Mon, Jo-Ann), and student (Vida)-- I wish you guys all the best in the coming school year!!!

Wow. So it has been a month since my last post and I'm getting excited, as I know a lot of you are too, of our launch (okay, excited, nervous, stressed, anxious...). I realize now as I write that fall is really just around the corner, and as much as I love that season of the year, I feel that I'm not quite done yet with summer! Those in New York City, have you noticed the days getting somewhat cooler? I remember walking to work this Monday morning and as I was turning around to Henry Street, there was this chilly crispiness in the air that really felt like fall.

In fact it makes me a little sad that we're nearly done with summer. Can you believe how quickly time flies? My professor from Boston always said, it takes forever to get to July 4th, but after that, everything just zips by.

So as with every ending, there's always a new chapter to turn and here's where we'll all finally get to see our initiative take off. Never be afraid to try-- that's probably the one thing that I learned throughout this whole process so far. Most of you may have heard my $10 vodka-cranberry story, but really, I think $10 is a product of everyone just giving it shot, sometimes without a clue what we're doing, but trying it out anyway.

I wanted to share with you what I learned from Mon's trip back home, the kind of difference $10 can really make. (Mon since you've taken forever to come up with a new entry here, I may have to pre-empt some of the material you may be thinking of putting down :-)).

Equity in Education is, translated to simpler terms, the vision of $10-- to provide underprivileged students access to quality education. Here's an example. ERDA, one of our non-profit partners, would like to receive funding for some science equipment to help test the ph level of water in a Chemistry class. Their plan then is to use that equipment to test the ph levels of the water in the Pasig River, and then as a key project component, students will brief Baranggay Captains (local town leaders) surrounding the Pasig River on the key hazards that could aggravate water pollution. I was thinking, wow, what a great example of how the supplies, which our donors have generously funded, could be used in a really relevant way. This is the point I believe where equity is achieved-- that learning experience in an underprivileged school in Manila will have been no different from that in a New York City school, because of the resources our donors have provided these underprivileged students. What a great way to level the field of education.

As we move forward with our initiative, there's an opportunity out there to make a real difference. And if we give it all a try, I do think that's there's no telling how much we can possibly achieve.