Will you take 10 seconds for homeless youth?

My day job is as Director of Development and Public Affairs of Urban Peak, a 26-year old non-profit organization in Denver whose mission is to support youth experiencing homelessness on every level.

Urban Peak rocks.

Will you help us? I swear it only takes 10 seconds!

Urban Peak employee (and Americorps volunteer) Alex Vaassen won the Community MVP for the Colorado Rapids! This is an annual award and a huge deal for us at Urban Peak.

The next step is national voting. Each of the 19 MLS teams have a Community MVP. Now everyone can vote to see which MVP wins the national Community MVP.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Imagine what it will look like for Urban Peak, for our mission and for youth experiencing homelessness around the country if Alex wins. A win for Alex would put the conversation of youth experiencing homelessness on a national stage. For the MLS All Star game, where the national winner will receive her or his recognition, over a million people will be watching! This can be a huge opportunity to not only support Urban Peak, but all organizations that serve a mission like ours.

Voting started this morning at 9am. It will go through July 12^th and then a winner will be announced on July 15^th.

Please vote. Please vote often. Please send the below link to everyone you know. Please ask them to do the same. People can vote as many times as they like.

Imagine Alex on mid-field at the All Star game on July 31^st in Kansas City!

We can win this. We have the most amazing staff around. We have committed donors, volunteers, supporters and board. We can spread the word throughout the country to get the most votes.

Here’s where you can vote, right now: http://www.mlssoccer.com/mlsworks/community-mvp/vote

Votes can also be made on the MLS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/MLS/app_398709353508343

THANK YOU so much for your support with this. Please forward this to all of your friends. Voting literally takes 10 seconds!

P.S. You can vote as many times as you wish!

Running for a cause

I'm not a runner.

I haven't run any kind of distance distance since 2000 and that was a 5K, I think.

I love riding my bike and swimming, and working out.

Not running.

So when co-workers of mine began to talk about running all or a portion of the Colfax Marathon coming up in Denver on May 19th, I kept thing "well good for you".

The fundraiser in me thought that this would be a good chance to tell all of my friends about my new agency, new job, and the mission I now fundraise for: youth experiencing homelessness.

I signed up to run the half marathon.

I know! It's crazy!

What we do for our causes: for the animals, for human rights, for those who suffer.

So on May 19th at 7am MST I will begin the longest run of my life. I am doing it because no matter how tough it is for me, it doesn't even come close to what young people have to go through just to get to our agency. Not even close.

Here's me after my first training run explaining a little more. Warning, I'm not looking pretty!

http://youtu.be/19MNwhRWagA

This is a chance for me to raise money, to show what a 47 year old vegan can do physically and to work on a goal with my husband. Yep, Mike is doing it too.

I am super excited and a little scared. I am powered by love from friends and family, by the mission of the agency I am fundraising for (Urban Peak) and by a good amount of vegan friends who have become athletes for a cause.

If you'd like to support my fundraising efforts and youth experiencing homelessness, you can donate here: https://www.coloradogives.org/danrunsforurbanpeak

As of the writing of this blog I am at 33% of my running goal and 17% of my fundraising goal.

Imagine what we can all do for our causes!!!

Thank you for reading. I will keep you posted!

Dan

PS...Mike just reminded me that he is part of this blog too and therefore I should publish his fundraising page! Here it is: https://www.coloradogives.org/stringmanmike