A Question of Charity
Photograph by daveelmore(cc)
Mum is horrified. She says for a person who is invested in healing others, I have single-handedly caused her recent bout with high-blood pressure.
How have I done this (so you do not make the same mistake when dealing with your mother)?
I announced my ten-year goal to the family – I plan to take several months off and hike the Appalachian Trail. Please note - this is my ten-year plan, so I am no where ready to just leave comfortable society behind, shut down the practice and go. I understand that it will take a lot of planning and my success will be in the fine details.
I am sure Mum envisions me, heavy pack, blistered-feet, shivering in the cold, and all alone on this journey. She may have a point even. There are several legends along the trail that involve single matrons making their way across it all alone. But, I shall not be one of them. No, my partner plans to do this with me and several others are thinking about doing it too, or at least doing various parts of the trail with us. So much for solitude.
My ultimate goal with it? I plan to incorporate it into my career. I need to do it once for experience sake, but then I want to lead groups, incorporating hypnotism, positive thinking, and making it an even greater personal transformative process for those who travel with me. Yes, this may play into my abused people program (that has sadly been put on the back burner), but I think it would be wonderful to help those who have related fears (creepy crawlers, height, etc.). And not to mention, I think it would be a wonderful way to start a weight-loss program. It would totally reset old-habits. Anyway, these are just some thought bumping about in my mind.
All this also depends on the state of the Appalachian Trail, though. That is why, on this Sunday Question post, I am taking a moment to tout The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), caretakers of the trail. It is a volunteer organization that does trail maintenance and is a general trail advocate. They have offices and visitor centers spaced out along the trail and provide trail updates to hikers, among other safety concepts.
Here is the thing, CommuniCause.com is sponsoring a charity contest. You can vote for your favorite charity and the winning one will receive a $25,000 social make-over. I of course, am supporting the ATC and encourage you to vote for them, but it does not matter as long as you do vote for whatever charity you feel passionate about. In the case of the ATC, they are already pretty suave with their web site, but I can imagine with the help of $25,00 in the social marketing context, they can provide more hiker services (sounds crazy and insane, but I plan to use an iPhone up there or whatever the current technology provides in ten years) like twittering about the trail in various locations. It can also help them fundraise, which is an important element for a volunteer non-profit.
Anyway, now that I have spoken (written) my peace, what charity are you supporting? Here is your chance to provide even more awareness for your cause.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Hi,
Good for you! All too often we can get stuck into the everyday routines of life and such dreams and aspirations remain mere thoughts…. Talking about it will help it become more and more real and that much easier to do and your idea is a great way of helping others.
Kate.
May 5th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Hi,
Thanks for the great blog post!
I actually work for MindComet, the company behind CommuniCause. I am really passionate about this and so happy to have the opportunity to do so much good!
I came across your post and just wanted to let you know about a couple of extra ways to help your readers vote for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy! It sounds like they’re doing an excellent job, but with Social Media, there’s always something else to do, and I’m sure we could help take them to the next level if they were to win!
First, you can link directly to your “share” page: http://www.communicause.com/my-cause/1227. Visitors can vote right here! They can also find ways to share your charity!
You can also post a badge on your site, just by copying the code on that page and pasting it into a blog post! As they say - easy cheesy!
If you’re on twitter, that page will also tell you how you can receive an extra vote and show your followers how to ReTweet the message and bolster the vote count further.
With a little elbow grease, your charity can go really far!
Good luck to you!