Running for a Reason

As you know, Amber and I are passionate about living and serving in our community. (We hope that passion is contagious!) Lately, we’ve also grown a passion for running. So logically, this post is going to be about the marriage of those two passions – supporting non-profits and running.

On any given weekend, you can find a 5k run/walk to participate in where the proceeds of the race go to charity. In fact, this month alone, you can still choose from all of these area races:

• October 13 – Pumpkin Run supporting Parkview Whitley Hospice
• October 13 – Bookin’ It 5k supporting Kate’s Kart
• October 13 – Great Prostate Cancer Challenge supporting ZERO – the end of prostate cancer
• October 14 – Run for Riley supporting Riley Children’s Hospital
• October 20 – Race for Kids Sake 5k Walk/Run supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana
• October 21 – Trailblazer 5k/10k supporting Fort Wayne Trails
• October 21 – Barefoot Water 5k Walk/Run supporting Forgotten Children Worldwide
• October 27 – Fright Night 5k supporting Huntington Rotary
• October 28 – River City Rat Race 5k & 10k supporting UNKNOWN

So what’s the point? I’m not advocating that everyone run out (pun intended) and sign up for any or all of these races. But what I would advise is to treat these events (and golf outings, fundraisers, etc.) as you would when investing your dollars through donation and time through volunteering.

If you’re just looking to run, you can do that on a local trail. You sign up for these events because you want to support the cause, yes? If that’s true, I recommend you do the following before registering:

• Make sure you match your effort with your passion. Especially when there are this many events to choose from! Are you passionate about children’s causes? Healthcare? Clean water?
• Ask how much of your registration goes to support the mission of the organization. If you were making a donation or paying for a ticket to an event, they would disclose this.
• Learn how much of your gift goes to operating costs, etc. and how much goes directly to the mission? This will vary with each organization depending on if they operate from an endowment, have staff or are all volunteer.
• Consider whether your not your gift stays local. Does the event support a local charity, national or global? Consider if that even matters to you?

This might seem like overkill for something as simple as a 5k. But if you’re making the investment to train and pay a registration fee, you might as well make sure you’re making a wise investment for your personal passion.

Serve in Big Way

There are currently over 500 children – 76% of whom are boys – in Northeast Indiana on the waiting list for an adult role model. And almost as many children are waiting to be put on the waiting list. This is a big problem that needs a Big answer. You!

Our Little throwing the first pitch at a TinCaps game.

This is one organization and opportunity close to my heart. My husband was matched with his Little in the community-based mentoring program over a year ago. We see the growth and development in our Little, but being matched has meant so much to our lives. I promise you, if you’re willing to make the commitment, you’ll see the benefits. Another thing I promise, you have time to do this!

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana has a goal of 300 new “Bigs” in the next month. There are several ways you can have an impact and get involved:

Community-Based Mentoring

• Bigs and Littles meet together one-on-one, out in the community to share fun activities like playing catch, going to the zoo, or baking cookies.
• Matches meet 2-4 times per month for one year.

Site-Based Mentoring: School Buddies

• Bigs and Littles meet in a local school to eat lunch, read, work on academics or simply spend time together playing games or talking.
• Matches meet 1 hour per week for the duration of the school year.

Visit www.bbbsnei.org or call 888-456-1600 to start something BIG today!

 

About Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana

In 2011, Big Brothers Big Sisters matched more than 1,773 children with a caring adult mentor in our 13-county service area. Our site-based mentoring program is in more than 75 elementary schools across Northeast Indiana and South-central Michigan. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana has one of the largest mentoring programs in the Midwest – serving more children than Indianapolis, Chicago and Cincinnati.

Tweet Up 4 Good (#FW4Good)

 

Last year, a group of non-profit professionals organized the first Tweet Up for Good in Fort Wayne. It was hosted at Cancer Services in April and featured 4 non profits (Parkview Foundation, PBS, NeighborLink and Cancer Services) that spoke briefly about their missions. We enjoyed great company and great food.

Taking a cue from Impact 52, we wanted to kick it up a notch this year, so when Heather, Andrew, Aaron and I (Amber) sat down to plan the 2nd Annual Tweet Up for Good, we knew we needed a strong call to action. After some brainstorming and a lot of leg work, we are proud to announce plans for the next Tweet Up for Good, which will take place on April 19 at Vince’s.

But wait, it’s not that easy. This isn’t simply a “sign up, show up, eat and drink beer” kind of Tweet Up. No, we want to mobilize our social media community and make a positive impact right here, right now. So here’s what we are asking: We’d like all Tweet Up attendees to choose a volunteer activity, listed on our site, to participate in between now and April 19. We encourage you to take pictures of your experience and tweet about it a long the way, using the official hashtag #FW4Good. Our hope is this will inspire others to join in, thereby increasing our impact exponentially.

Here’s the organizations we are partnering with this year: NeighborLink, Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana, Community Harvest Food Bank, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana and Saints on the Street.

The goal is to mobilize at least 52 people between now and April 19. Will you be one of them? RSVP at www.fortwaynetweetup.com.

Your Hobby Could Serve Hundreds

I’ll admit, I’m not too familiar with the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program. I have several friends who are Bigs and it seems like a very valuable community organization. Recently, my husband started getting to know the organization by covering one of their fundraisers. He was more than impressed by the organization….and the need.

Hundreds of boys ages 12-17 are on the waiting list for big brothers. Hundreds.

The need is great but you can serve easily. In addition to the traditional “Big” program, BBBS offers other opportunities like the School/Lunch Buddy and Arts Buddy programs. Their newest opportunity to serve is the Sports Buddy program created as a way to recruit male volunteers so you can have a specific focus your time together with your “little brother.. They are looking for 50 volunteers.

50. Are you one of fifty? Could you be a Sports Buddy?

While our blog is not setting records for site visits on the web, our average site visits could more than meet the need of these 50 volunteers. If you visit this site, have you caught our contagiousness? Would you be willing to serve?

Take the opportunity RIGHT NOW and follow these easy steps.

1. Fill out an application on the Big Brothers, Big Sisters website
2.Complete the interview process with BB,BS
3. Meet twice a month with your “Little”.

If you have any questions contact Sports Buddy Coordinator Zac Kuhn at 888-456-1600 x 2273 or by email.

Guest Blog: Karma Yoga

Bethany Pruitt

by Bethany Pruitt

Karma, in the yoga tradition, means action and the result of action. The two are inseparable; every action is based on a past action and at the same time creates a future action. It isn’t difficult to imagine how a vicious cycle can form and karma becomes something negative, something undesirable.

Karma Yoga is the yoga of action. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describes Karma Yoga as “selfless service without personal expectation,” or “performing actions of selfless service without attachment to the results.” The goal is to break the cycle of karma. No expectations. No reactions to actions.

Community service was an important part of my life long before I started my yoga journey. I’ve been an idealist as long as I can remember, whether that meant stopping animal abuse or ensuring access to safe drinking water. No matter the cause, the result was always of supreme importance. Imagine the shock as I began my yoga studies, only to find that this ancient tradition actually recommends abandoning such noble expectations. Nevertheless, service or Karma Yoga, is a crucial part of most yoga teacher training programs.

One of my own endeavors into Karma Yoga came in June in the form of a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters. I had completed Street Yoga’s training for teaching at-risk youth, and I was eager to put these new skills into practice. For four weeks we gathered a group of matches, big sisters with their little sisters, and practiced yoga once a week. Our objectives were building confidence, relieving stress, and cultivating a sense of self.

When we began, the little sisters as well as many of the big sisters seemed unsure how to move their bodies into the different shapes, and in many cases completely incapable of relaxing. As the weeks passed, they seemed less uneasy; the younger girls were especially eager to practice what they had learned the previous week. Although some of the girls were never able to close their eyes and lie still in savasana, or final relaxation, I think many of the girls (and certainly their big sisters) came to enjoy that time of quiet and stillness at the end of practice.

I knew we would only be together for a short period of time, but I had hoped that I would see these little sisters transform into girls and young women who are comfortable and confident in their bodies. In my initial enthusiasm, I had put together a practice that expanded the definition of yoga and included activities that I thought would help the girls manage their stress and express emotions that can be difficult to verbalize. When I didn’t immediately see the results I’d hoped for, I lost my confidence and abandoned those parts of the practice. Yoga had changed my life, and I was impatient to see that transformation in the girls I was teaching.

Looking back now, I can see clearly the potential for growth in the small changes I did witness. During a conversation I had with the Big Brothers Big Sisters director, I discovered that the very activities that had felt ineffective to me were what had impressed her most about the yoga classes. She could see transformation in the little sisters where my personal expectations had blinded me. Although we cannot know with certainty if after only four weeks of yoga any of the girls will slow down or deepen her breath the next time she finds herself in a stressful situation, we do know that the possibility exists because of the seeds we planted.

It is easy for those of us who live, work, and volunteer in the communities we love to become discouraged when we cannot see the fruits of our hard work. Detaching from the fruits of our actions doesn’t mean we cease to care, or that we abandon the integrity of our work and stop learning from our mistakes. Rather, selfless service without personal expectation means accepting that we cannot ultimately control what happens. If we are to take the advice of Patanjali, and I suggest we do, then we continue our work, our Karma Yoga, without expectations, finding peace in the knowledge that we are breaking destructive cycles and planting seeds through our selfless service.