A Guest Message from Jeff Lamontagne:

 Just a few days ago, The Second Wind Fund received our 2,000th referral—which translates into over 10,000 counseling hours for kids referred to us. What started as a one-time goodwill gesture to help out a dozen or so kids at one school has now become an organization that is one of the largest providers of mental health services for youth in Colorado, and looking to expand across the country. Thank you for your help in our growth!

Today, as you know, we are just in the beginning stages of developing the umbrella organization to start the geographic expansion of our life-saving services. In order to do that, we need resources—so we need your help with fundraising.  Specifically, we have two requests at this point:

• Upcoming marathon/half-marathon/relay training team.  Do you or anyone you know want to run a marathon or a half marathon, or to form a relay team for October’s Denver marathon?  We give you coaching, guidance, and a team to run with, as well as incentive prizes and other information and goodies, in return for some fundraising.  Let us know if you or someone else wants to participate in our 2nd Annual Marathon Training Team!  Training begins in April…our team last year loved training together and their feeling of accomplishment.

 

• We need fundraising pioneers!  Want to get “in” on the ground level of our national effort?  We are forming a fundraising committee to help out with several projects such as an evening educational gathering and cultivating some national partnerships. Do you like to make creative ideas come to life?  Do you like working behind the scenes? Do you like working as part of a team, and aren’t afraid of asking people to support an important cause?

Then please consider volunteering for our fundraising committee!  Please reply directly to me if you’re interested.

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff Lamontagne

Founder and Executive Director

Second Wind Fund, Inc.

Second Wind Fund

A few weeks ago, I found out that my dear friend Diane (Wood) Hurley has breast cancer. It was a huge shock to all of us who number among her friends and family, and I can’t even begin to imagine what she must be feeling right now.

When one of us asked what we could do for her, she said that everyone keeps asking her that question, but she doesn’t know how to answer. She just keeps thinking, “Find a cure for breast cancer.”

Well, I do know that there are lots of things we can do to help her. We can give her a ride when she needs one, we can hold her hand when she reaches out, we can listen when she needs to talk, and we can be her voice when she can’t find her own.

But there is even more we can do. We have decided to take on an incredible challenge and walk 60 miles over three days in an event called the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. Maybe we can’t personally find a cure for breast cancer, but we sure can raise money for an organization that will.

So here we are, Team Hurley!

Our goal is to raise at least $5,000 for Team Hurley, so we’ve got some serious work to do. Please help us reach our goal by donating today. To make a donation, go to www.the3day.org. Click on Donate and search for my personal fundraising page (Kelly Jo Eldredge). If you prefer not to donate online, you can call 800-996-3DAY to donate over the phone, or I would be happy to mail you a donation form. By the way, you can also spread a payment out over four months, if that helps, using the payment plan option on the website.

Diane is a great friend. She’s one of the strongest people I know. But right now she needs our help. Please join me in giving Diane hope. Help us find a cure for breast cancer.

We started training this week, and I’ll be honest, today 60 miles sounds crazy. But it’s a walk in the park if it takes us one step closer to a cure. GO TEAM HURLEY!

Emily (MacInnes) Sommers is one creative chick, and she thinks big. We like that. She was looking for a way to promote the new pink gloves for her Medline glove division, and her brainstorm turned into a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness.

Click on the link below and boogie along with, well, just about everyone at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portlan, Oregon. When the YouTube video reached a million hits, Medline promised to make a hefty donation to the medical center. And they're not stopping there. Medline will also now offer free mammograms for anyone in the community.

So get down with your bad self and participate in this fundraiser simply by watching this wonderful YouTube video! It doesn't get much easier than that. Thanks, Emily!

YouTube Pink Glove Dance

Are random acts of kindness considered a form volunteerism? What do you think?

Our definition of the word volunteerism has changed during the course of this project. Our current way of thinking is that anything that is outside of yourself—“more than me” thinking—can be considered volunteerism. This includes simple acts of kindness.

So a few months ago Eric and I were out at a romantic restaurant talking quietly over a bowl of spaghetti or a plate of sushi or something. (Our goal is to visit every cool restaurant in Denver at least once.) Anyway, we started talking about what it means to us to be of service to others.

MORE Than me co-author Eric Mott asks himself a few hard questions after his most recent search and rescue field-training day involving trees, ropes, and snow.

Welcome to More-Than-Me.com. Our purpose on this website is to spark ideas for adventures in volunteerism and to share how volunteering shapes our lives for the better. We have collected many stories already for our upcoming book, MORE Than me: Stepping Out of Yourself and Into Humanity and want to hear more. Let's start a firestorm of inspiration through our shared experiences!

We hope you visit often, have fun, and then step outside and start your own adventures in service.