RSVP here – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=339138476530&ref=

The Mo Man. Nuff said.

The fundraiser is very simple and only requires a little bit of enthusiasm, determination and Franklin’s adorable puppy-dog face. It went a little like this:

We picked a neighborhood outside of Chapel Hill and started at arbitrarily-named house ‘number one’. We all walked to the front door and crowded around the porch step. The idea was to intimidate the owners with sheer volume into giving us a piece of unused furniture, clothing, or old electronic. Kidding. We didn’t use scare tactics. Instead, we told them our story, about our mission, how Habitat operates, what we were trying to raise, etc. and explained to them that whatever they donated, regardless of size or value, we would take to the next house and ask the new owners if they could “beat it” in terms of value.

So, at our first house, the kind people there donated to us a pair of worn snow pants– light blue, slightly faded at the edges, size small, but overall great condition. Wow, we thought– what a really nice pair of snow pants– we were inclined to just pack up the fundraiser right there and call it a day with our newfound treasure. But, we didn’t.

We walked on to the next house and presented the owners with the same spiel, but this time also flashed our prized snow pants for them to gaze on. Evidently, the neighbors were in a highly competitive mood that day or in amidst an untold neighborly feud, for when it came to charitable giving, this couple was quick to find something of higher value– they came back with an exquisite framed picture. We were amazed! We were two for two. We  thanked them generously for their donation and moved on to the next house.

Rinse, repeat, an old picture frame and a pair of snow pants later, we had ourselves a 30″ TV. And then a whole wardrobe of clothes, and then a bicycle and then a couch. I was a little surprised we didn’t walk away with a new starter home. The fundraiser worked wonderfully!

At our meeting tomorrow night, we will start discussing the best way to sell our donated goods and new ways to spread out to more neighborhoods and do it again. That’s all for now, we’re still fundraising like crazy and very thankful for everyone’s support. Enjoy the pics below!

• Seven team members worked a casino event last night in Durham from 6-12. They gave up another Friday night for Habitat and earned about $400 for their labor. Great job guys!

• Our next major event is our Spring Break themed party at Player’s on February 18th. Player’s has been very generous and charitable with the structure of the event and allowed Habitat Thailand to take all proceeds from ticket sales before 11. Colleen has been doing an excellent job orchestrating the logistics of this event and publicizing on campus. The team will be selling tickets in the Pit all this week for $5, tickets at the door will be $6. So check out our Facebook page to RSVP and learn more about the party!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=326310677027&ref=ts (Facebook event)

• Franklin and I have been working recently on communicating with our liaisons in Thailand to secure our arrival by plane and lodging in Bangkok. We should be talking with a travel agency near the beginning of this week to get an air fare estimate and lock in our ticket purchases.

• I received an email Thursday announcing our reception of the Google Grants Program. This is an online grant sponsored by Google that gives money to nonprofit organizations to use in the form of free advertising towards their website. Our website will now be featured alongside Google searches related to our subject matter. This should generate a lot more traffic to our site and really help get the word out about our mission!
• Secondly, we put on yet another Bake Sale Extravaganza last night on Franklin Street. The demand for late-night-gooey goodies has apparently increased since our last appearance, as we sold more than 150 items last night. Erica spent the better half of Wednesday evening baking more cookies than I could shake a stick at. Our total earnings were $174.29!
• The Thailand team was supposed to be doing the Can You Beat It? fundraiser tomorrow afternoon, but Chapel Hill is currently engulfed in one giant snow drift. As the current condition looks from my dormitory window, it appears that little will get accomplished tomorrow on Chapel Hill’s campus apart from sledding, sleeping and snowball fights. The Can You Beat It? fundraiser will be rescheduled later in February. Our next event, is a Thai Buffet were organizing in the Pit Monday, February 1st. We worked with several Thai restaurants around Chapel Hill to donate platters of mouth-watering Thai food to sell to students.

Tasha, Colleen, Madison, Nathalie, and Ben prepare to clean the Dean Dome.

Franklin sweeping a desolate section of Dean Dome.

The Thailand team spent 4 hours yesterday afternoon cleaning the Dean Dome arena after the basketball game vs. Georgia Tech. We made a little over $400 for the labor and never want to visit the Dean Dome again. As you can gather from the first picture, Colleen was the only member entirely thrilled with this job. I may or may not have heard her even whisper to herself after we were done that, “…This was the most fun she has had cleaning up other people’s trash in years…”

We arrived at approximately 3:30 pm and happily watched the remainder of the basketball clinic Georgia Tech was sponsoring. Once the game had ended and the pain was starting to subside, an overly animated man approached our group and immediately starting speaking on the “joyous wonders of clean-up time.” I’m pretty sure I heard Nathalie let out an audible groan. The Bubbly Man vivaciously explained that we should each carry two bags, one for trash and one for bottles. “You pick up trash like this,” he pantomimed. Also, a few people needed to grab large buckets for disgusting liquid disposal.

We formed a chain gang, starting at the bottom section of the Dean Dome– one person per row– circumventing the entire arena in this manner picking up pop corn bags, spilling nacho cheese on our shirts and stepping in to slippery patches of “God knows what.” This lasted about an hour. Our spirits we’re just starting to pick up at the prospect of finishing, but then Bubbly Man happily pointed out that there was much more fun to be had upstairs. So we all trudged to the upper section. I almost vividly recall at some point during this mass movement I saw the figure of Mohammad secretly sitting in a dark corner entirely neglecting his work and eating a Mediterranean Deli sandwich.

After we picked up all the trash in the stadium and played many games of “How much money to eat baked beans off this floor?” we took off our gloves and headed for the exit. I kid you not, Bubbly Man once again materialized out of thin air with a rack of brooms and a beaming expression. “Broom broom time,” he cheered.

We formed another chain gang. Same drill, just different weapons. We swept every row of the arena. At the 4th hour, people were starting to get a little delirious. We really hadn’t worked that long, but it helped the drudgery by pitying ourselves every now and then. After we finished sweeping, Bubbly Man rappelled from the ceiling rafters and startled us once again. This time, though, he was not carrying more cleaning implements, but rather a plate of brownies and cookies.  Naturally, we all voraciously grabbed the sweets with our grungy fingers and shoved them into our eager mouths. This solely alone made the work worth it. And Bubbly Man of course…

After I collected a couple of donations from the team, I announced our current balance of $11,365.32. I am very pleased with our current financial mark and happy to say we are right on schedule with previous years’ progress. The first semester is always a bit slower than the second due to the increased planning and organization that goes into larger events. I recently mailed our first $1000 check to Global Village (the international Habitat affiliate with who we are coordinating the Thailand trip) and also spoke with several of the leaders. Our next important milestones will be scheduling traveling arrivals and departures and trip logistics for our stay in the country.

More importantly, however, our meeting mainly consisted of more furious brainstorming on how to fund raise the remaining $12,000 or so. We have already lined up some paid-work in cleaning the basketball stadium after games and some other odd jobs in the area. In addition to these smaller events, we are organizing some larger blockbusters, including a comedy show featuring Chapel Hill’s improv group CHiPs, a Valentine’s Day date auction, a couple bar nights, and possibly an a capella concert in late Spring. Thoroughly refreshed from our three week fundraising respite, we are very enthusiastic about the final stretch of months coming up until our departure. The team is working very hard in just about all of their extra time to advocating and spreading awareness for the trip. Donations have still been coming in and we couldn’t be more thankful for the continued support. Thanks!

Groovitational Pull performs at H4H Thailand bar night

Our second bar night was great! Groovitational Pull, the band pictured above, put on a tremendous show, rockin out to spot-on David Bowie covers. They played pro bono for Habitat and I just wanted to give them a shout-out for their great gig and willingness to support our mission. We raised $100 even from cover charges and an additional $20 donation from Jack Sprat! Just outside the bar, we we’re also at it again with the bake sale. We pulled another late-night, brownie-selling, graveyard shift to pull in another $119. I want to personally thank Mama Saad for baking the best fudge brownies in the Triangle area.

We showed up at about 5:30 pm and were told to meet in a secret staging room in the basement of the Dean Dome. After weaving through various back corridors of the basement, inconspicuously trying to stumble into Roy Williams, we finally made it to the operation prep area. We signed in, they equipped us with over sized security jackets, went over the directions and finally informed us that free pizza was available in the corner. Now I might be mistaken in this matter, but I’m fairly confident I saw Madison shove at least two people and a small child out of her way to be first in line for pizza. To make matters worse, I’m pretty sure I could testify that I saw her grab at least four behemoth slices of pizzas and proudly walk back to her seat with them. And yes, she ate them all. Other than this particular incident, the remainder of the pizza eating was rather uneventful. After fattening us up, the operations staff sent us back upstairs to man the gate entrances. We received another training session on the Do’s and Dont’s of ticket taking and bag checking. No backpacks. No food. No laptops. No weapons. Unless it’s a Duke game. No crying babies. We got the idea. The rest of the night ran pretty smoothly–people trickled in, we made sure they weren’t carrying any contraband and then we sent them on their way.

I think its important to note, however, that Shani evidently became disinterested half way through her shift and thought it would be funny to shine her laser scanner in my face as I tried to responsibly perform my job. I may or may not have retina damage now. This is Shani, pretending to be maturely carrying out the duties of ticket taking.

Brandon, Franklin, Shani, Tasha, and Madison working at a basketball game as ticket takers and bag checkers.

In other news, we are having our Jack Sprat sponsored bar night tomorrow night! Live music, drink specials– 11pm-2am –$3 under 21, $5 over 21 cover charge at door (cover proceeds go to Habitat, though!) Tell your friends and come out tomorrow night!

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