Updates and Distractions

Hello everyone!

As you may have noticed, we have not been doing a lot of advertising or focusing a lot on our Race for Freedom fundraiser…

Unfortunately (to be completely honest), there have been a lot of distractions that have kept us from running as hard as we should be.  And that’s mostly my fault.  I have been very distracted with moving to San Francisco, starting a new job, blah blah blah…

I know.  Excuses.  However, to my credit, I have been practicing my push-ups almost every day 🙂

If you are new to all of this, let me fill you in.

Last year, my dad, Terry Szymanski, ran a marathon for our fundraiser, Race for Freedom.  We (me plus a team of amazing people who don’t take enough credit for what they did) ran that fundraiser in conjunction with Life Leadership’s Life on Life Push Up Contest, and we centered it around the Twin Cities Marathon.  This turned out to be a huge success and we raised $20,025 for Operation Underground Railroad (an organization that rescues children from human trafficking all around the world).

So, this year rolled around, Terry and Jeff Moulton signed up for the marathon again this year, and we planned on doing the same thing as last year.

And then there were distractions….

However, although we haven’t been running as hard as we should have been for our goal (no pun intended), we do have until the last day of 2018 to achieve it this year.

So, without further ado, this is the plan for the rest of the fundraiser:

First, we are still doing it.  We are not giving up.

Second, Terry is still running the marathon.  Jeff has injured himself again, unfortunately, and last I heard, Tina was running in his stead.  We are centering our fundraiser around this event as well as a few others that have yet to be planned.

Third, we are running Race for Freedom Part 2 in conjunction with Operation Underground Railroad this year, so this is technically a push-up contest.  Therefore, I have been practicing my push-ups.  My goal is to beat my original 50 that I did in my first video.

Fourth, you can visit the following landing page to donate: Race for Freedom Part 2

Click on the green “Donate Now” button and that will take you to OUR’s donation page.  PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK you put our unique ID code of 77 into the “unique ID” section when donating so they know it’s from our team.

How can YOU help?  Here are 3 ways:

1. Donate using the link here.  Anything that God has called on your heart to give helps.
2. SPREAD THE WORD!  Tell everyone and anyone about what we are doing and what OUR is doing!  Share this on Facebook and help us get the word out.
3. Fundraise on your own 🙂  Host an event or sell some stuff to raise more funds for the cause.

Why are we doing this?  Because it’s our mission.  The enemy may try to distract us, but we’ve committed to it, and we’re going to stick with it.  I am speaking for myself, but I believe I speak for my whole team when I say we will work very hard to make this work.

Those children deserve a second chance.  What’s happening to them is insanely wrong and disgusting.  It’s hard to talk or think about, but the word must be spread, and money must be raised.

I know people get asked for money all of the time, and it’s easy to just kind of ignore it and keep scrolling on your Facebook page.  I get it.  But it doesn’t cost you anything (except a few seconds) to share this.  So if you can’t give, share.  We can make a huge difference if we work together.

Let the distractions be put aside.  I am making a commitment here and now to put more focus on this project than I have been up to this point.

I like the lyrics to Matthew West’s song, “Do Something:”

“If not us, then who?

If not me and you?

Right now.

It’s time for us to do something.

If not now, then when,

Will we see an end,

To all this pain?

It’s not enough to do nothing,

It’s time for us to do something.”

 

Until next time,

Hope Szymanski