Impossible Ones: We educated 30 kids!

Through my Pencils of Promise campaign, I raised enough money to educate 10 children.  Then I won a $500 scholarship which I donated back to the program, so now we're up to 30 children!  There are currently more than 61 million children without access to education, but Pencils of Promise is doing something about it - building schools around the world - they've built 50 already and are working on the next 50.  At $25k per school, it seems like an impossible goal, but at Impossible HQ (and ModPo!) we know nothing is impossible and we're aiming to pull together enough funds to build an entire "impossible" school in Guatamala.  I met my own modest target, but the overall campaign is only at 71%.  Joel has now raised $17,732 towards the full cost of a school and he's doing all sorts of outrageous things to earn the rest (like running ultramarathons).  It's not too late to help.  Drop by http://pencil.li/PHZ7Dj, donate whatever you can, and help make the world a more literate place.  Thank you!

Cows for PoP

Quick update: we made it to 100%!  10 students educated!  Thanks everyone who helped out. 

I'm 50% of the way towards my Pencils of Promise fundraiser (that's 5 students educated!) and hoping to get to the full 100% with your help.  I've got 5 copies of Black Cow that I'm ready to personally autograph (with a big thank you) and post anywhere in the world to the first 5 people who donate to the campaign. It's tax deductable, and you'll have that warm and fuzzy feeling of having helped educate a student with every donation, plus you'll get an autographed copy of a book that author Jessica Bell called a "masterpiece which I will keep treasured on my bookshelf." There are currently more than 61 million children without access to education, but together we can do something about it.  Thanks in advance for helping me educate more readers (and don't forget to drop me a line with your postal address after you donate so I can get your book to you!)

Happy International Literacy Day

Happy International Literacy Day everyone.  I think that, of all the causes that I support, literacy is the dearest to me.  Not only because it's the backbone of my life - I grew up surrounded by books and they continue to broaden and add joy to my life and the life of my family and friends (that includes you!), but also because, as UNESCO very rightly puts it, "Literacy contributes to peace as it brings people closer to attaining individual freedoms and better understanding the world, as well as preventing or resolving conflict." In other words, literacy is the root of our global intellectual, mental, and moral health.  UNESCO has  recommended 5 things you can do to support literacy in your community:

1.  Donate books and reading materials to your local school or community centre

2. Start a reading club (if you've already got one - well done - maybe your club could do #3)

3. Volunteer to teach literacy classes in your community  

4. Become a mentor of a non-literate person

5. Send your literacy stories to joinliteracy(at)unesco.org

In any case, as you cuddle up with your books this evening, remember that there are 504 million illiterate people in Asia and the Pacific alone.  Even in the US, the functional illiteracy rate is sitting around 20%!  Check out this infographic. 42 million adult Americans can't read at all.  If that isn't a call to action, I don't know what is. Why not share your own literacy stories in the comments below? Or talk about what literacy means to you. Let's share Literacy Day together.

The new Pencils of Promise campaign page is up and running! Literacy has always been the backbone of my life, and the lives of my children. Helping others achieve literacy (and therefore opening the door for choice, for a broader, more expansive future) through the proceeds from my writing -- an outcome of that literacy, which was provided to me, freely and abundantly -- makes perfect sense. Won't you join me?  If you don't already have a copy of Black Cow, you can grab one for less than $6 - an easy way to contribute (and a good read too by many accounts!). If you've already got a copy then you've already helped as I'm contributing 50% of all my sales including those past and hand sales at events (once coming up very soon - more on that in the near future). If you want do more, or join the campaign, then click here.

Let's create a ripple effect!

  

Change a life: doing something impossible for literacy

Those of you who follow my blog will know that I've been inspired by my mate Joel Runyon's Impossible HQ to try and ramp things up a little and get involved in a little philanthropy. Why? It's not like I'm one of those wealthy ladies who lunch. I've got a busy life, work hard, and have plenty of home grown mouths to feed, but I've long felt like I need to incorporate some charity based work into what I do - to formally set out to change a few people's lives for the better.  One of the many reasons for wanting to do this is because I want to live in the kind of world where helping others and charitable giving is on the agenda for everyone, and because I know how powerful the ripple effect is for giving.

One of the top items on my Impossible List is "get involved on an ongoing basis at a high level with a literacy related charity".  Literacy/education is an area that is of utmost importance to me and I've long thought that this was the type of charity that I'd get involved in.  Once again, Joel has come to the rescue by putting out the call for his "Impossible League community" to raise $25,000 dollars to build a school in Guatemala in conjunction with Pencils of Promise.  PoP has built 50 schools over the past few years and over the next few months, they want to build 50 more. In their own words: "education is a living, breathing entity that with the right nurturing, evolves into something spectacular. We’ve learned that every piece of its growth is a challenge and that each pencil, each dollar, each volunteer is essential." Sounds like a worthy cause for me to begin my own philanthropic journey with. So here's the deal.

I've yet to be paid royalties on my latest novel Black Cow.  My publisher has promised payment to all authors in August (hey, it's August now!).  Since the opportunity has arisen, I'm going to publically pledge 50% of all the sales that I've made so far and am yet to make on sales of Black Cow to the PoP cause (a cause well aligned with the theme of the book).  I don't know how much that will amount to at this stage, but whatever it is - a lot or a little, PoP have got 50% of it.  If you'd like to support this great cause and help provide a school for these gorgeous young kids who want only to learn (and get a great read in too that some reviewers have called "life changing", go pick up a copy of BC now - maybe for a friend if you've already got it and join me.  Or you can go directly to PoP and contribute to our project here:  http://www.pencilsofpromise.org/fundraise/fundraiser?f=a0GU00000050QBQMA2&r=1
or you can help spread the word on your social networks by clicking on one of the little share buttons below.

Thanks for being part of something exciting! I'll update the figure here as soon as I know what it is.