This year at Ironman Coeur D Alene in June, I qualified for the 2008 Ironman World 
Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii to be run on Oct 11, 2008. My wife and son will be coming out to watch and it should be lots of fun (for them!). For me, I have been training for this for a while and am looking forward to suffering like a dog for around 10 hours in the sun-baked lava fields of the big island (ouch). The Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, followed by a full marathon (http://www.ironman.com/).
This year, shortly after I qualified for the World Championships in June, I escorted 4 high-schoolers (Sonya and Luke Falcone – my step kids & Meaghan and Noah Allyn – their cousins) to St Bernard Parish outside of New Orleans. While there, we worked through a great local non-profit (http://www.stbernardproject.org/) to help re-build a house destroyed by hurricane Katrina in Chalmette, La. St Bernard Parish was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. It was under 20 ft of water, which rendered 100% of the structures uninhabitable. While services have been restored to the area, many of the homes have yet to be rebuilt. We found many families with children still living in FEMA trailers on front lawns, in front of homes that looked much like they did only a few months after the storm. The people of The St Bernard Project have picked up where government services couldn’t and have already helped close to 150 families get back into their homes. Through generous donations from individuals and corporations, the tireless work of their staff, and an army of volunteers, they are able to rebuild a house for about $12K. While they have done lots of great work, there is still much to do, with close to 100 families on the waiting list.
So, I had a crazy idea that I could combine these 2 events from the summer of 2008 and use the Ironman to help the people of St Bernard. Here’s the deal, I would like your help raising some much needed money for The St Bernard Project. How about we make a deal that if I finish the race, you’ll donate some money to SBP?
Also, I might need a little extra motivation, so how about we do an “Under 10” kicker. As in, if I can drag my body around the course in under 10 hours you sweeten the deal (maybe an extra $10, or $100, or double it!). I completed Ironman Coeur D Alene in Idaho in June in 9:49. But, Kona is a tougher course.
For those of you that are the “Ironman – SBP Top Ten” (the top ten donors), I’ll send you a very cool St Bernard Project Visor.
You can simply send an email to ironmanstbernard@mattgiven.com and let me know your plans. I’ll follow up with the best way to get the $$$ to SBP. (All doantions are tax deductable.) Then, on Oct 11th, follow me on ironmanlive.com. After the race, I’ll update everyone on how we did. If you know of anyone else who might be into helping, please feel free to forward this email. Thanks!
Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii to be run on Oct 11, 2008. My wife and son will be coming out to watch and it should be lots of fun (for them!). For me, I have been training for this for a while and am looking forward to suffering like a dog for around 10 hours in the sun-baked lava fields of the big island (ouch). The Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, followed by a full marathon (http://www.ironman.com/).This year, shortly after I qualified for the World Championships in June, I escorted 4 high-schoolers (Sonya and Luke Falcone – my step kids & Meaghan and Noah Allyn – their cousins) to St Bernard Parish outside of New Orleans. While there, we worked through a great local non-profit (http://www.stbernardproject.org/) to help re-build a house destroyed by hurricane Katrina in Chalmette, La. St Bernard Parish was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. It was under 20 ft of water, which rendered 100% of the structures uninhabitable. While services have been restored to the area, many of the homes have yet to be rebuilt. We found many families with children still living in FEMA trailers on front lawns, in front of homes that looked much like they did only a few months after the storm. The people of The St Bernard Project have picked up where government services couldn’t and have already helped close to 150 families get back into their homes. Through generous donations from individuals and corporations, the tireless work of their staff, and an army of volunteers, they are able to rebuild a house for about $12K. While they have done lots of great work, there is still much to do, with close to 100 families on the waiting list.
So, I had a crazy idea that I could combine these 2 events from the summer of 2008 and use the Ironman to help the people of St Bernard. Here’s the deal, I would like your help raising some much needed money for The St Bernard Project. How about we make a deal that if I finish the race, you’ll donate some money to SBP?
Also, I might need a little extra motivation, so how about we do an “Under 10” kicker. As in, if I can drag my body around the course in under 10 hours you sweeten the deal (maybe an extra $10, or $100, or double it!). I completed Ironman Coeur D Alene in Idaho in June in 9:49. But, Kona is a tougher course.
For those of you that are the “Ironman – SBP Top Ten” (the top ten donors), I’ll send you a very cool St Bernard Project Visor.
You can simply send an email to ironmanstbernard@mattgiven.com and let me know your plans. I’ll follow up with the best way to get the $$$ to SBP. (All doantions are tax deductable.) Then, on Oct 11th, follow me on ironmanlive.com. After the race, I’ll update everyone on how we did. If you know of anyone else who might be into helping, please feel free to forward this email. Thanks!
Luke / Sonya / Meaghan / Noah / David (Homeowner) in St Bernard Parish – July 2008
Thanks in Advance!
No comments:
Post a Comment