I see your $13,000 and raise you $13,000!
Passports with Purpose has had a momentous first week. Already we have raised $13,000, enough to achieve our goal of building a school in Cambodia through American Assistance for Cambodia. It will be built in Preah Vihear and should be open by the middle of 2010.
Take a moment to pat yourself on the back for help making the fundraiser such a success. But don’t go now – there’s more!
We have doubled our original goal and we’re now aiming to raise an additional $13,000 to add a health package, so that our school improves the health of the students and the whole community. We want to pay for water filters to give clean drinking water at the school, a vegetable garden with a gardener and a cook to provide students with one free, nutritious meal each day, and a school nurse to promote health education and give regular check ups.
I travelled to Cambodia last year and I saw for myself that many children there don’t have the opportunity to go to school. There are few work opportunities for the uneducated in Cambodia, especially for women who sometimes end up turning to prostitution out of desperation. We can help change that for the next generation.
After our enormous first week, the donations have started to slow. But the raffle runs for nearly two more weeks (until December 21) and there are some great prizes. Now is not the time to let it lose momentum. Now is the time to buy tickets if you haven’t done so already and to spread the word to your friends and family.
The prizes offered by Roaming Tales are your choice of two wonderful Caribbean holidays – one a vacation for the whole family at Coconut Bay Beach Resort in Saint Lucia and one for nature lovers on the secluded island resort of Tranquility Bay in Belize. But there are a ton of great prizes on offer – including hotels around North America, photo shoots and camera gear, iPods and Nintendos, books, airline vouchers, backpacking and camping gear and so on. You can see all the prizes and buy your tickets here, with a secure payment through PayPal.
I promise I won’t be offended if you buy tickets for one of the other prizes instead! In fact, the really great thing about this raffle is that you get to decide which prize draw you want to entered into per $10 donation, so there is zero chance of ending up with a prize you don’t want. The only thing is that your odds will be better on the less popular prizes, so maybe you want to spread your cash around. My tip? New prizes are being added all the time so check back often and if you see a new addition – such as this stay at the Fairmont Olympic in Seattle from Wandermom – then the odds are going to be better on that prize than one that was there in week one when we had the first rush of raffle purchases.
Honestly though? I think the odds are great anyway. Say we make our goal of $26,000. That means that 2,600 tickets were purchased. With 59 prizes (and counting), that means odds are somewhere in the vicinity of 44 to one, more on some prizes and less on others. That’s still pretty darn good! And if you buy 10 tickets then your odds improve to four to one.
Of course, the only thing that’s guaranteed is that it’s all going to a great cause. Kudos to Pam of Nerd’s Eye View, Michelle of WanderMom, Beth of Wanderlust and Lipstick and Debbie of DeliciousBaby Journal for organising it. I am privileged to be a part. As a traveller, I often have the urge to give back to the places I visit and this is such a tangible way to do it.
Thank you again to my sponsors, Coconut Bay Beach Resort and Spa in Saint Lucia and Tranquility Bay Resort in Belize.
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