They gave me a shoe

A long, long time ago, I did the JDRF-Hawaii here in Honolulu, to help raise funds to support research for a cure for juvenile diabetes.  I mentioned here that I was doing this, and mentioned that I thought it would be neat to shoot for a goal of raising $3445 — since it is, after all, a rather magical number.

And as I mentioned, with your help, I helped raise over $1000 as part of Team Taylor — I say part, because Team Taylor ultimately raised over $14,000, making it the leading fund raising team this year.

The wife and kids and I had a great time preparing for and doing the walk, and have been looking forward to next year and a chance to do it again.  But we thought we’d closed that chapter.

Until the JDRF came calling.  They scheduled an awards dinner for this past Friday night, and Team Taylor was going to be honored.  Would be like to join some of the team for the dinner?  Of course.  And to my surprise, they gave me a shoe — a glass sneaker award for having helped raise over $1000.

I was bowled over.  I was excited just to hang out with some of the team, and to enjoy a nice meal, but an award?  Wow.

So, thank you.  Thank you for helping me – again – and thank you for supporting JDRF.

I doubt I’ll do anything like this again any time soon.  But lots of others are.  I considered trying to raise funds for the Fischer House next week, when I do the Great Aloha Run, but realized that I was really behind the power curve (I’m still running, though).  Clay is chasing her dream of completing a triathlon, and raising funds for the fight against AIDS, which I think is awesome.  My awesome brother is doing the Hill Country Ride for AIDS, and is working hard to prepare for it.  I’m doing some work, I think, for the April fundraiser / foodraiser for the Hawaii Food Bank, in an effort to keep acting local.

And I suspect that many of you are also doing things — locally and maybe not so locally.  Please share; after IBOL, I’d love to hear how else you are working to help others.  It does me good to hear these things from time to time, too.

Sulaymaniyah

Intrepid Army guy Matt is still delivering bundles in Northern Iraq, in the Kurdish region near Sulaymaniyah. Matt is working with Iraqi units operating in the area and along the border with Iran. These units are working out in the remote regions, in some desolate areas that don’t get a lot of support from anyone – small villages along the Iran/Iraq border.  This photo is from their recent trip and delivery to Chuwarta.

It has to be pretty tough going up there these days.  Those mountains get cold, and that area gets some snow.

Much thanks to Matt and the units helping with this.

IB♥L delivery: Salah ad Din

Today, I got some new photos in the mail. It’s from an early December delivery in Salah ad Din, to a women’s sewing co-op. They’ve been trying to get their small business off the ground, so to speak, and the bundles will surely bring welcome additions to their stashes as well.

The man in the picture (I think) is Dhafir A. Abdulkareem Al-Ani, Chairman of the Iraqi Family Organization. It was the Iraqi Family Organization that helped with this delivery — Iraqi relief groups helping Iraqis.

And no, I’ve not been resting on my laurels. In addition to the IB♥L World Tour and some writing while hidden away in the mountains, I’ve also done some running recently. The training that I was starting at just about the same time IB♥L was starting, came to a close this weekend when I ran the 2009 Honolulu Marathon (and did not come apart at the seams, so to speak).

So — does anyone recognize these bundles?

IB♥L World Tour Stop in Lake Arrowhead

We had a wonderful visit yesterday in at The Mountain Quilters Cottage in Lake Arrowhead. Kate grabbed her two kids from school, rounded up her mom, and made the drive up the hill to the quilt shop. Unfortunately for me, they arrived before I did, and witnessed me pulling up in my FIL’s Subaru, a small trail of smoke coming out from underneath as if it were threatening to catch on fire (just a leaky power-steering pump, making it more dramatic than dangerous). When we got there, the store itself had no power, but their classroom did, so we rounded up a few chairs and chatted while the kids, well, were kids (and were very well behaved and well mannered, too). We chatted some around the project, about how it all got started, about what’s next and what’s ahead for me and the Army and the world. Never got around to having coffee, and with the power initially out in the store, we never did get around the shopping for fabric.

And, apparently, if I don’t write something lengthy up about IBOL and soon, Kate’s mom is going to poke and prod and push me along until I do!

Oh, and yes — there may be a volunteer in Iraq, willing to do a small project like IBOL. Small. SMALL, folks, small. But it’s a start. More details (here, of course) on that when the time is right.

Tomorrow: IB♥L World Tour Stop in Lake Arrowhead

Stop two on the world tour will be tomorrow, 03 December at 1400 / 2 pm. The Mountain Quilters Cottage has no idea we’re crashing at their place — maybe I will call them in the morning.

Are you in the area? Come and say hello!

IB♥L World Tour: Beaverton, OR

Imagine going to Mt. Rushmore and standing before the monument, only to have them speak to you.

Such was my day today. I got to spend the day with the family, and go to the Sew Mama Sew! Secret Lair, and have coffee with Terry Grant and Gerrie Congdon.

The walk and the tour

Just a short update on two not-so-important things.

The JDRF walk was this weekend. It was a fantastic event — they’ve been doing it on the island here for something like 16 years, and it’s evolved into a very smooth, well run event. We woke up that morning to rain — and a lot of it! — but it had stopped by the time we arrived for the pre-walk run and held off until after the walk was complete.

Thank you, for all that contributed in support of this. While I wasn’t able to meet my goal, I was able to help raise over $1000, helping Taylor’s team raise more than $8000 — far beyond their original goal of $5000! The wife and kids and I were talk of the 188 walkers on Team Taylor Kicking Diabetes — with TKD being the largest team to participate.

So, thank you. We had fun doing it, we enjoyed the morning and the great company on the walk, and we enjoyed being able to not only support Taylor and her efforts, but to help support research that will someday lead to finding a cure.

The walk, if you’re interested, started and ended in Kapiolani Park, looping around it and the (totally awesome) Honolulu Zoo. Here’s the map showing the location — yes, it’s right along the beach and yes, it is that awesome and beautiful.

Me, I loved the trees that lines so much of the route.

It helps that the view from the park features Diamond Head.

And if you’re interested, Taylor and her efforts have made the news locally here and here. Who wouldn’t want to report on a cute kid taking on an awesome challenge like this?

Now, about that IBOL World Tour.

This weekend, we’re flying to Oregon. Nothing like last minute details, right? Well, the Army was involved, so things tend to work out that way. The wife and maybe MIL and maybe even the kids and I are planning to go to Beaverton on Tuesday, 24 November — yes, just two days ahead of Thanksgiving. If you’re interested, we’ll meet at the Starbucks in Beaveton (11405 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, Beaverton, OR 97005-2929) [map] at 1400 / 2pm. I’m using my Google Ninja Skills (GNS) to ferret out where the Sew Mama Sew folks actually do their magic, in case they can’t make it to coffee. But, by all means, feel free to stop by their blog and leave a comment of “OMG! OMG! IBOL Tuesday is next week!” and help me flush them out from their secret lair. (I actually favored calling it IBOLapalooza.)

And stop two on the world tour will be 03 December at 1400 / 2 pm. The Mountain Quilters Cottage isn’t too far from where I’ll be hiding out, and they’re open something like 10 to 5 on weekdays. I figured we could just meet there and chat. If things get really out of hand, we can head on over to the Village Ice Cream & Sweet Shop, though we’d need to see if it’s still open (I heard that it’s up for sale). A little ice cream never hurt, right? Lake Arrowhead is a bit more laid back — I figure we can just play this one by ear a bit more.

Interested? Leave me a comment, or just shoot me an email. And by all means — help me recruit others to come and join in the fun. I think Happy Zombie said she’s make the drive down to Beaverton (probably just to sneak at peak at the SMS Secret Lair, if I can find it). Not sure who else would show up in Lake Arrowhead, but I do know that the shop is wonderful.

JDRF

Folks, I’ve been recruited by my neighbor to take part in the upcoming walk / fundraiser for research to combat juvenile diabetes. My neighbor — she’s small, she’s cute, and she doesn’t take no for an answer.

So, here’s a link to my page. I had to come up with a goal — and there was only one number that came to mind (3445 – the number of IBOLS). I have no idea how I’ll do in reaching it, but I thought it was worth doing. If IBOL has been all about just doing things to make the world a better place, this seemed like something that falls right into line with it.

Want to help out? I’d welcome the assistance.

There won’t be a Son of IBOL

Folks, I failed.

I am sitting at the airport, waiting for my flight out of Iraq. In the weeks since Ramadan closed, I’ve unable to find someone to take on IBOL after I leave. I was really hoping there’d be an IBOL II, or a Son of IBOL as I liked to call it. But, as I prep to fly, it looks like there won’t be one, and IBOL is indeed coming to a close

I’m been mulling over why this is. IBOL seems like such a no brainer — surely others would want to do something like this, right?

And then I remember the amount of stuff involved in this. Bulk mail, sometimes topping 600 or 800 boxes a day. A warehouse. Coordinating with other units, in other parts of Iraq, for sending them stuff. Stealing, er, I mean, acquiring dunnage, pallets, nets, trucks, forklifts, anything and everything.

Maybe if it had been 500 bundles, it’d be an easier sell. 3445 is a lot to chew on.

So, here’s where we stand.

1. I’ll update this site from time to time, as things develop. One easy way to keep tabs on when there are new posts is to use this RSS feed, or bookmark this. If you use GMail or Yahoo Mail or something like these, you may be able to add this link and it’ll notify you when something new gets added. As this site slows down to a crawl, it might be easier to have the site notify you when there’s something new posted, versus checking in from time to time.

2. I’m starting in on the big write-up. It’ll be either free or as close to free as possible. I’ll likely distribute it digitally, in a few formats, since one of the keys to the success of this whole IBOL thing seems to have been the embracing and leveraging of all things webby and geeky. Got Kindle? There may be a Kindle friendly version, if I can figure it out. And since Wil Wheaton is a hero of mine, there may be an audio version as well. Who knows. But all of that would come out through this site, I think.

3. Somehow, I think there will be other things that will come up this year, if you too are bitten by the bug. Like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JRDF) walk — for which my wife has signed up (and the kids and I will tag along). I doubt these things will make it to this website; there’s probably some way to discuss / share these things.

4. And there’s always the IBOL Guy World Tour, currently set with three stops — Oregon before Thanksgiving, Lake Arrowhead after Thanksgiving, and on Oahu in the spring. I’ll likely share the details here.

I wish there was a follow-on version of IBOL. It would have been cool.

Q West

I didn’t think I’d ever post this to the web: 6 pallets have moved from here to a place called Q West, and will make the rest of the trip this weekend, most likely.

I keep waiting for someone to call and, say, ask for a credit card number for all this.

If you’re looking for some more (mis)adventures in Iraq, swing by and see what Sygnett is up to (these days, it’s cookies from my sister, by the looks of it) or where in the world Erin is.