Who’s Up for a Challenge?

A little over a year and a half ago I wrote a post about two women who were helping orphans in Africa, of course you probably don’t remember that post because a year and a half ago I had a smaller audience than a Jessica Simpson movie, but I still take credit for helping publicize their cause. Hope Runs is the name of the organization. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Claire Williams, co-founder of Hope Runs, asking me if I would be willing to put a post up on Half-Fast because they need your help. After several attempts to hustle her for advertising dollars I resigned myself to the fact that maybe they really didn’t have the budget to pay my exorbitant rates and I agreed to put her post up here at Half-Fast, but you’d better believe that I’m writing this off as a humongous charitable donation.

Unfortunately for Hope Runs they have not made any stupid business decisions or participated in any reckless, irresponsible spending so they do not qualify for the freight-sized helpings of bailout money that your financial institutions are pissing away even as we speak. Therefore, I encourage you to help out in any way that you can. The least you can do is read the guest post below and then head on over to their website to offer your support, actually that’s not true, the least you could do would be to just skip the rest of this post and go on about your day, you heartless jerks!

Apply for the Hope Runs 777 Challenge!

What is the Hope Runs 777 Challenge?
In 2010, Hope Runs will be leading a Guinness World Record-breaking endeavor to complete 7 marathons on 7 continents in only 7 weeks. With a team of dedicated runners, we are committed to breaking some fantastic Guinness World Records (yes - there are some left to be broken in the area!). We are also proud to be running a green event through carbon-emissions-offset sponsoring.

The Hope Runs 777 Challenge will help bring the issues facing the 14.5 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone to the forefront of the world’s consciousness. By pushing ourselves to the limit, our team will raise awareness for the issues facing orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) all over the world, mobilizing people everywhere to become more involved. With each member of the team covering his or her own costs and committing to raise thousands more toward the cause, this effort will help to make a lasting impact in places that need it most.

How Can I Join the Team?
We've lost a couple members of our team and are looking for replacements! We are looking for dedicated runners, marathoners, doctors or nurses, and physical trainers who would be committed to spending six weeks of 2010 working toward this record-breaking goal. If you do not fall into one of these categories, but feel you have what it takes, please send us an application.

The team will also be required to do extensive fundraising (team members are currently fundraising $26,200 plus the cost of their trip), both to pay for their own trips and to meet a minimum fundraising goal set for each member. We will be happy to help with fundraising strategies and ideas, but each member will be trusted to earn enough to make this challenge a highly successful fundraising effort.
If you want to apply, send an email to info@hoperuns.org!

One for the Orphans

If you've spent any time reading this blog then you realize that I rarely post anything serious here. OK, I NEVER post anything serious. So when I ran across a touching story about orphans in Africa and wanted to post something about it I found myself with a dilemma. How could I maintain the tongue-in-cheekyness of the blog and still talk about the orphans. I began a post delicately making fun of the orphans but just couldn't pull it off without sounding like a cold heartless jerk. I know it's hard for you to believe, but I don't think it's possible to 'delicately' make fun of orphans in a tongue-in-cheeky way, much like it's apparently not possible for my doctor to 'delicately' have me turn my head and cough.

Essentially the story is this; two American women, Lara Vogel and Claire A. Williams have been teaching orphans at the Tumaini Children’s Home in Kenya to run. Ignore for a second the irony of American’s teaching Kenyan’s to run and focus on the good. Hope Runs, a fledgling organization started by the women in March uses running to raise the self-esteem of the children and seeks to create opportunities for volunteers to run with the kids and help with reading and music programs. With the help provided by Williams and Vogel these kids will grow up to become well-adjusted adults.

The Tumaini Children’s Center has a blog set up here, where you can make donations and read posts from the children. I encourage you to go read some of their blog posts, but make sure you've got a box of tissues... you know... in case your allergies start acting up like mine did... I wasn't crying! It was my stupid allergies! You can also visit www.hoperuns.org for more information or visit Clare and Lara’s blog, Tripping On Words.

Up next for Williams and Vogel: Teaching the French to surrender and showing the Japanese how to make wild and crazy game-shows, meanwhile I’ll be traveling to orphanages in Brazil to teach them the game of soccer. In all seriousness, we need more people like this and I wish them the best. Now go check out the links in this post. Go on.
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