AIDS Walk and Ride 2008: Report

Hey everyone,
We just wanted to say "thank-you" for your support for us and the Aids Alliance and their annual Aids Walk and Ride.Your donations and support allowed us to take a team and walk 3 miles through downtown Raleigh in support of Aids awareness and the organizations that work with those living with HIV/AIDS. This is a fantastic organization, and it is a privilege to participate in this wonderful event.

In total, we raised $340 for the Aids Alliance and their work. I haven't found the total amount raised at the event yet, nor the total number of participants, but I know it was a very successful event. I am just proud of those who walked and those who gave in support of this worthy, often ignored cause. I am proud of the number that we raised, and have each person to thank, as well as the change jar from the Divine Conversations group! I hope each of you celebrate with me in this fantastic event and celebrate the part that you played.Thanks again from Alison and myself, as well as everyone involved both physically (walking) and financially (giving).

with much love,
Justin
http://www.camelbo.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: part of an email about the event:
Our event was a great success, with more than 700 walkers and 150 riders. We had balloons, snow cones, llamas, hot dogs and so much more! We will report on our fund-raising when we finish the accounting. I hope you will join us on May 2, 2009 to do it all again on Halifax Mall! We are always looking for volunteers to plan and create this event, and for volunteers on the day we put it all together, so if you have interest please let us know!
Until next time, and with my great thanks for your warm and generous hearts!

Jacquelyn Clymore,
MSExecutive Director
Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina

Religion and Politics

We've been talking lately on politics and the role spirituality can/should play in our this political season.

Last week we passed out an article, and we will focus our conversation around this article from Christianity Today. Jim Wallice is a name that is seen on the news a lot during this election time... He is the author of two books; God's Politics and The Great Awakening.

He makes some interesting comments in this article, any are open for discussion this week.

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

Also if you are interested in joining in the AIDS walk this sat. Sign up HERE: select join a team, then in "please select a team" drop-box click on Divine Conversations. Then fill out the info.

You can also register there. Registration is at 1pm and the walk starts at 4pm. Information found HERE.

You can also give donations on the site, or bring it for the change jar on thurs.!!!!!!!!!

Everyone is invited to join in!!! Hang out after!!!!!! for dinner.

Giving Back

UPDATE ON RANDOM CHANGE JAR (RCJ)

The money that we collected before the holidays ended up not being needed for the person that we were going to donate that money to.

We've been looking for a way to use the $110+ that we collected in a way that is both positive and can achieve the maximum effect for the $. What we've found is this:

There is a hispanic-American 3rd-grader in the Willow Springs community (Between Gardner and Angier) who has a rare disease that does not allow him out of the house very often. He cannot even attend public school and is forced to be homeschooled. The disease, Skins Crohn's Disease, is severely debilitating this child's life.

Partially because of the expense of this disease(treatments, doctors, tons of bandages), the family is having a hard time financially. Both because of his illness and his family's money situation, he misses out on common activities that we take for granted (he's never had a birthday party).

His birthday is coming up soon, and there is a group working on helping the family with that. Our plan is to take the money and get them gift cards to a grocery store to help free up some of their funds to focus on other needs. We hope that this gift will help not only the child, but the family as a whole!

If you still would like to give to this specific gift, please call or email Justin by wed. March 26th at noon! You can PLEDGE the money and by Wed. @ noon, and we will add it to the count out of our pocket. You then can reimburse us Thurs. when we meet, or call and we will make some other arrangements if you can't make it out Thurs. but would like to give.

EMAIL Justin cucamel@gmail.com

The money in the RCJ that we began collecting last month will not go towards this and instead will be left alone, continue to be collected, and will go to a future endeavor of the group's choosing.

Thanks again for your willingness to help, your conversations, and your friendships!
feel free to leave comments too!

love,
Justin and Alison