Fundraising deadline: $500 by Tuesday 3/31

Last week, I received a prompt from my handlers at Enduro Africa reminding me of yet another fundraising target and deadline. Having registered and started fundraising late, I thought I would be exempt from these “guidelines.” Not so.

February and March have certainly been excellent months for raising funds, and I send another heartfelt thank you to my friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues who have already answered the call.

I know that there are many others out there who love the idea of me doing EA and who want to contribute to the work that UNICEF, Sentebale, TouchAfrica and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund are doing in Southern Africa, especially with respect to improving HIV prevention, care, and support to those most vulnerable to the disease.

So, if you haven’t contributed yet, please do so now. With your help, I’ll make my goal of raising an additional $500 by Tuesday, March 31st.

Best of all, I’m expecting any day now a package of customized, embroidered Enduro Africa t-shirts and I plan to give one to every person who contributes $100 or more to my ride.

So, as they sing in Rent: No day but today.

And stay tuned. The adventure continues.

Addendum: Only $250 more to go! I'll send everyone who donates between now and tomorrow (3/31) one of my new customized EA tees, regardless the amount! So come one, come all. And thanks.

Addendum 2: Ok, troops. We're down to $150 more to get to my goal. Thanks so much to Kenna and Sara, who just weighed in. Remember: Custom EA tees to anyone who donates between now and tomorrow, regardless of amount! So, step right up. Don't be shy...

Addendum 3: We did it! Thanks to many of you, I raised an additional $650 for EA's charities! I'm just delighted. Tees will be sent to everyone who donated during the 3/31 fund drive. For those of you who missed the deadline, contributions will be welcome through July, when all fundraising ceases. The next target is to get to $3750 sometime in early May. Again, a heartfelt thanks to all who answered the call. As always, stay tuned for pics and updates of my off-road training, trip planning, and assorted news. The adventure continues...

Design for the Other 90%

As a co-track chair for the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference, I traveled to the CDC in Atlanta on Sunday for the second time in a month to sort through scientific abstracts and to create coherent conference sessions with my colleagues that highlight – and, hopefully, stimulate further – advances in HIV prevention in the U.S. It’s been a ton of work, but it has also been a great opportunity to meet and interact with some of the most accomplished people in the fight to curb the epidemic here in the States and beyond. And the CDC is always an interesting place to visit.

Best of all, I happened upon a new technology installation at the CDC's Global Health Odyssey Museum entitled “Design for the Other 90%,” and that greeted visitors with the following statement:

“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”—Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises

The CDC's installation, which runs until May 29th, makes the case effectively that, because of poverty, 90% of the world’s population has limited or no access to the most basic commodities critical to public health and wellbeing. It showcases 30 collaborative projects developed by designers, engineers, and social entrepreneurs to create affordable solutions that increase the availability of healthful foods, clean water, healthcare, education, affordable transportation, and shelter.

Design for the Other 90% showcases designs that incorporate new and traditional materials, and abandoned and emerging technologies to solve myriad problems—from cleaner-burning sugarcane charcoal to a solar-rechargeable battery for a hearing aid, from a portable water-purification straw to a low-cost laptop. By understanding the available resources and tools as well as the lives and needs of their potential users, these designers create simple, pragmatic objects and ingenious, adaptive systems that can help transform lives and communities.
– CDC Global Health Odyssey Museum

In fact, one of the innovations highlighted is the LifeStraw, which is an inexpensive, portable, personal water filtration device distributed by TouchAfrica, one of beneficiaries of Enduro Africa 2009.

To learn more about this incredible work, visit the installation online at Design for the Other 90%.

Closing in on off-road training schools

Finally found an option for learning to ride in the dirt, mud, and muck. The school has a good reputation and the fees are about what I'd expect them to be. The trouble is, attendees must supply their own bikes. Anyone out there have an old, 250 - 400 cc beater I can muddy up for a weekend? Anyone? Anyone? (No?)

There's another school in Virginia, out by Luray Caverns, that supplies bikes. Hopefully, I'll hear from them soon too. 

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Dirtwise Riding School
To: Andrew Forsyth
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 9:59:21 PM
Subject: RE: Mid-Atlantic area rider trainings??

G'day Andrew,

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Your MTBing experience will give you an added advantage to being able to control an offroad motorcycle, as opposed to some one with no experience at. Nothing beats being out there on the trails gaining first hand experience though!

What you have listed below are the "mid-Atlantic" schools we will be offering for 2009. There are still spots available for these upcoming Dirt Wise schools.

Attached is a registration form for you to use and the event flyers that should answer any further questions that you may have.

Thanks for your interest in the Dirt Wise Academy of Offroad Riding schools.

Shane Watts

Wattsy World, LLC 

---

From: Andrew Forsyth [mailto:adforsyth @ yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 11:55 AM
To: dirtwise@shanewatts.com
Subject: Mid-Atlantic area rider trainings??

Hey!

I'm so happy I found your site! Here's the deal for me: In October, I'm doing a 2000-km offroad ride through Southern Africa as part of a fundraiser (see way below). 

I've ridden on road for years but I've no dirt riding experience! And I suspect that my years of mountain biking will not generalize well to throwing 250 - 300 lbs around beneath me. 

And I'm in the Washington, DC area and there's nothing nearby that seems to offer rider training. 

I see that you offer a few trainings that are relatively nearby and that are on weekends that could work for me (see below). Can you advise on availabilities on these dates, or whether any other mid-Atlantic trainings are planned between now and summer? 

• Apr 10/11 (Fri/ Sat) Penhook , VA
• May 2/3 Meriden , CT
• July 11/12 Romney , WV
• Aug 28/29 (Fri/Sat) Ithaca , NY

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Best,

Andrew Forsyth