Sponsor
10 Day Sprint
Starting tomorrow, I will be head-down on a 1o day sprint. It is an all-in 100% guts-effort to welcome 100 new sponsors to join this journey.
I am still carrying most of the expense out of my own pocket for this initiative, as I have been doing for the last two years. What that means essentially is that I am still short to meet the required amount to board a plane to start the journey.
I am convinced it will happen, and just know that there is some hard work ahead of me between now and then.
In 10 days time I want to be able to book my air travel with confidence that I have the necessary funding in the bank to start and complete the journey.
There are essentially three levels of sponsorship: $5, $24 and $240. You can sponsor me at www.pozible.com/lifebridge or if you would prefer to use a different payment method contact me by email or leave a comment below.
It is more than just giving money. In return for your sponsorship, you are in effect joining the journey, and so I will be sending you your own 16-page passport which describes this initiative in detail. At the end of the journey, you will also receive a copy of the book Life Bridge featuring 100 photos of human bridges.
I will be working hard to engage my networks. Would you help by passing this news to people you know. Please help us to reduce child mortality by sponsoring this initiative. Thank you!
Thank you! “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. -Lao-tzu
Thank you to everyone who has supported Life Bridge and the 10 City Bridge Run since 2010, and especially more recently through the Pozible campaign. The support received is not only financial, but importantly the encourage, advice and feedback people have generously given along the way.
I was out running the other evening and recorded this short video to say thanks. Earlier that evening I had learnt the good news that my crowdfunding has successfully reached its target.
Now, to gird that goodwill together and advance to the next level, one step closer to us together making a difference.
More about my methodology to come shortly.
For now, a big thank you for making this possible.
Powered by Brooks
Thanks to Brooks and the Sydney Running Centre for sponsoring a pair of Brooks Beast running shoes.
Every contribution makes a big difference, and for a running event, shoes are an extra special concern of mine.
I was delighted when Phil from the Sydney Running Centre called me with the good news of sponsorship from Brooks. The Brooks Beast is a great running shoe. It has good stability, and comes in different width sizes (most shoes don’t) so it gives me the extra room needed in a 4E.
This morning I took the shoes out for their first training run, with some light sprint training, and over the next few days will slowly increase the distance to break them in.
Thanks to Phil at the Sydney Running Centre and all the crew at Brooks.
Powered by GU- Performing better and going longer!
Big thanks and kudos to all of our friends at GU, suppliers of the performance food, for a generous sponsorship of energy supplements to fortify endurance when the training and City Runs to come become challenging.
A good diet is essential for extended endurance training, and while most of what we need is found in a balanced diet, the rigours of training and climate mean that often more energy and electrolytes are required while competing or training to assist with performance and fluid intake. This is especially so for training of higher intensity that goes for longer than 90 minutes. When training or competing often you don’t notice your energy being sapped until it is spent- the same with fluids. That is why hydration and supplements like GU are so important.
GU provides an immediately digestible form of carbohydrates and electrolytes. Not only do these replace what exercise burns up in producing energy for the body, but they are combined in exactly the right combination to maximise the uptake of water consumed. The body benefits from energy, electrolyte balance and good hydration.
I will be thanking Andrew from GU Sports every step of the way when out on long runs. It makes a huge difference to training, and gives noticeable edge to confidence knowing that you won’t be flagging half-way through.
If you are looking for GU to add into your training, go to any good sports retailer. There are many products on the markets. The ones you buy in the supermarket are more like sugar bombs and don’t really cut it. Go with GU!
Six Bridges To Kevin Bacon
Here is something you might not know about the 10 City Bridge Run. It is an initiative about participation. Not through running, but bridge building.
It relies wholly on sponsorship. Starting with nothing but an idea, the premise was to see what change might be possible working only through the participation of others. And we are off to a good start, but still need more support to complete the journey successfully.
Sponsorship is recognised through the book “Above the Line” which will feature 1,000 of the 24,000 photographs collected of people making bridges between themselves and others during the next 30 days from when the running commences. The 24,000 photographs will be presented to the G20 Summit leadership (President of Korea) as a ‘pictorial petition’ for better design of the global economy through the consideration of the needs of those in extreme poverty.
It presents a new business model described as a social business. It is not a not-for-profit. It is not a movement. It is about the collective ‘we’ showing our interest or care to make a difference. It is ‘for-purpose’, in this case to raise awareness of an individual’s capacity to influence extreme poverty.
Granted, most people are giving a lot already in their own ways, and engaged in a lot of great work supporting their communities and causes. But please note that here, sponsorship is very small. As little as $24, and as only as much as $240.
It is not a spectator sport. Please join me on the journey. Please consider becoming a sponsor yourself.
Right now I am wondering whether it is possible to connect Six Bridges To Kevin Bacon. Anyone can play this game! All you have to do is forward this blog post to someone you know…the hard part will be working out how many steps it took to reach Kevin. (I am going to start by forwarding it to six of my friends on Facebook).
So what happens once Kevin is reading this? This is what I would like to ask Kevin personally, but I need others to build the bridge to get the message to him:
Hi Kevin, would you please support me on the 10 City Bridge Run by becoming a Span Sponsor for $240? Thanks for your consideration. I hope you will join me on this journey.
To everyone reading this- Thanks for taking part. This is more than a game. We have the potential to create a big difference. Drop me an email or become a sponsor and then I can let you know when we hear back from Kevin.
Kevin- you are already a legend, and you would be a top bloke in my book if you would be a mate and support this initiative.
How hard can it be to get someone to sponsor you a pair of running shoes?!
When in doubt, post a blog!
Dear World, anyone have any suggestions?
Looking for a sports retailer to sponsor me a pair of Asics GEL Nimbus Size 11.5 US (4E).
Enough ‘No’s’ already from requests I have made, so putting it out there to see if anyone has any ideas?
I can guarantee international exposure (and local naturally) for the retailer as well as postcards from all cities visited.
Plus will feature the business in all training and running entry posts and give credit on the website.
While I am on a roll, also stuck for a Garmin Forerunner 110. I can live without the Garmin…the shoes would be a great help.
Just a note- I am relying fully on sponsorship to make this initiative work. Part of the creative process of inquiry- feeling what it is like to be without.
Target
Some people have asked ‘how much is enough?’ Here are my targets for sponsorship.
240 Span Sponsors @ $240.
2,400 Support Sponsors @ $24.
These will enable the Six Outcomes to be achieved. More importantly, doing so will raise awareness of an individual’s capacity to act to influence extreme poverty.
No one event on its own can solve the problems of the world. Together, we each play a small part toward making a bigger difference. Please join me on this journey as a sponsor for $24.
Lisa Asked: How Does It Work?
I was speaking with my good friend Lisa last night at GreenUps here in Sydney, and the conversation shifted onto the 10 City Bridge Run.
Lisa asked how did it all work. Good question. Here is my answer.
The start point would be to frame the 10 City Bridge Run: a global endurance challenge where I will run 10 sub-marathons each of 24 km in 10 cities across 10 countries within one month. The purpose is to raise awareness of an individual’s capacity to act to influence extreme poverty.
I will start running in Sydney on 14 October, and finish in Seoul on the last day of the G20 Summit 12 November.
These dates are part of a design to form a ‘bridge’ between two key institutional events: a United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals held last month in New York commencing 20 September, and the G20 Summit in Seoul starting on 10 November.
I contend that what happens in between, the engagement of people like you and I, is of the same importance.
This is about much more than just running. Each run represents the 24,000 children under the age of five who on average die every single day. While 0.1% of this figure is from the West, a staggering 50% comes from sub-Saharan Africa alone.
This is an initiative about participation. Not through running, but bridge building. I am asking people to take photographs of themselves or other people making bridges between themselves and for these to be collated and then presented to the G20 Summit leadership (President of Korea). Together can we collate 24,000 of these photographs which will be printed, curated and then delivered to the President of Korea?
Another outcome is a book that will be published in electronic and print format containing 1,000 selected photographs from those in the petition. The book has a working title of “Above the Line”, a reference to the challenge of moving people often corporately identified as ‘The Bottom Billion‘ above the line of extreme poverty.
The 10 City Bridge Run is community funded, that is to say ‘crowdfunded’, by many sponsors who each pre-purchase the book “Above the Line” enabling the running to take place, and importantly the achievement of all Six Outcomes.
Sounds difficult? The tagline for the event is “Is the seemingly impossible possible?” I don’t believe we can fully address this question without first seeing what is possible ourselves through an experiential challenge.
What I propose is possible, but it requires the participation of others. Will you join me vicariously on the run as a sponsor? Sponsorship is $240 for a printed copy of the book or $24 for a electronic copy of the book.
Please be part of the difference that makes a difference and sponsor the 10 City Bridge Run.
Philanthropy at work
The 10 City Bridge Run is philanthropy at work.
Philanthropy doesn’t mean Not-For-Proft. It means doing good in the interests of others.
Please sponsor the book “Above the Line” for $24 and help make a difference to poverty in our world.
This will enable awareness to be raised, a petition to be present to the G20 Summit, and leverage to fund projects that address the two biggest killers of children globally. Diarrhoea (through water and sanitation) and malaria (through mosquito netting).
The 10 City Bridge Run is an initiative of Social Alchemy, a social business established in 2006. It is cause-driven, otherwise defined as for-benefit and for-purpose. No profit made by the organisation is able to be distributed in the form of dividend.
Small Actions Count
It takes more than one to make a bridge. A quick word of thanks for making this journey possible.
Without the many who have supported this to date especially through sponsorship, it would have remained an idea isolated on the far bank called ‘problem’ looking across the river of opportunity to the destination called ‘possibility’.
Together, we can be part of the difference that makes a difference by making the bridges needed to ‘close the gap’.
If you are in a position to afford it, please support the 10 City Bridge Run to highlight small actions which will make a big difference in showing that the impossible can be possible. Please sponsor me with $24 here.
Building Bridges 