Lowther Rinse Repeat

Fearless City Cell Phone Drive December 23, 2008

Jenn Lowther
Originally uploaded by FearlessCity

Yesterday, I dropped off a couple of old cell phones that I had lying around in my drawers to the Fearless City phone drive. They are asking Vancouver residents to donate their old mobile phones to help Downtown Eastside artists share stories, and tap into life, jobs and family. I think that this is an amazing intitative and with very little effort, you can help someone less fortunate with an item that would never have seen the light of day.

I’ve just sent off an email to my family that I’ll be seeing over the Christmas holidays, asking them to bring their old phones with them to Christmas dinner so that I can drop them off once I get back to the city. If we all do this, the Fearless City phone drive will be a phenomenal success and we will have played a small part in helping out.

From the Fearless City website:

Action Plan:

First, Gather phones!

Collect all the unused mobile phones at your office and home - dig into your boxes of stuff, ask you friends! Digital cameras gratefully accepted too.

Next, Arrange Pick-up:

Let us know via Twitter: Fearless City, email: info (at) fearlessmedia (dot) ca, Phone/SMS: 604.644.4349, Voice mail: 604.682.3269 xt 8320
We’ll come by on  purple Yahoo bikes on Tues. Dec. 23rd & 30th to collect your devices
We’ll take your photo, bring treats, and thank you publicly with a link

Or, Drop-off (after Tuesday, 23rd) at:

• Roundhouse Community Centre - 181 Roundhouse Mews
• Pathways - 390 Main Street (kitty corner from the Canegie)
• Raincity Studios - 1 Alexander St. @ Water st.

Even send by Postal Mail to:

Fearless City
c/o DTES CAN
PO Box 88023
418 Main St
Vancouver, BC V6A 4A4

Notes:

• Remove your chip, and clear your contacts before donating (all phones will be completely cleared before released).
• Please include chargers and accessories - used digital cameras also welcome
• Unusable phones will be donated to FreeGeek for reuse and recycling

Who is Fearless?

Fearless is a Vancouver Non-Profit group providing tools, resources, and cultural outreach to artists and residents in the improverished Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. Fearless is a project of the DTES Community Arts Network (CAN)

Let the Countdown Begin July 25, 2008

In exactly 7 hours from now I will begin participating in the first annual Vancouver blogathon for charity.  For 24, starting at 10 pm tonight and ending 10 pm tomorrow night, I will be writing and posting a blog post every 30 minutes.  That works out to 49 posts in total.  I’m participating in the blogathon through work and will be posting on the Invoke blog.

I’ve already written a bunch of the posts and have had colleagues at work chip in by writing some for me as well.  There are some great posts that will be posted and a few that are funny.  They are definitely worth heading over and checking out.

I am doing all of this to help raise money for a small village in West Mali.  Through the Lochmaddy Foundation, all donations will be directed to N’Gouraba. Families in N’Gouraba are working hard to improve their lives and the lives of their children through a special agricultural project. Your donation will empower and enable them to realize increased crops, more family income with new opportunities and a brighter future.

So far, we have raised $1,346.  There is still time to get donations in and any little bit you can help with will go along way in a village like N’Gouraba.  Visit Invoke’s page on Plan Canada to make your donation.

Bootcamp, BBQ Off and a Blogathon July 17, 2008

This week has been a particularly busy one.  It is my last week at bootcamp - tomorrow we are redoing our measurements and fitness test and  I’ll post the results and the overall inches lost.  I’ve already noticed a huge difference in my stamina and overall muscle tone.  So much so, that I’ve already signed up for another month.  It starts on Monday - so no break for me, but well worth it.

At work, we like to do off’s.  We started with a soup off, then progressed to a slow cooker off - which we aptly named Rock Out with Your Crock Out.  That one was so good, that we did it twice - the mix of slow cookers and guitar hero is amazingly fun.  To celebrate the final arrival of summer in our fair little city, we’ve decided to do a BBQ off.  As I type, I am parboiling some ribs and am about to make a BBQ sauce to marinate them in over night.

Yesterday, I signed Invoke up for the 2008 24 hour blogathon for charity. Basically, we will be posting a blog post every 30 minutes for 24 hours. This year, the blogathon was arranged by Vancouver’s very own Miss604 and the last time I checked, there were 12 bloggers signed up.  I know Vancouver can do a lot better than this and I encourage any bloggers out there to participate.  I will be writing in Invoke’s blog for the event if you would like to check it out during the event.  The Invoke team with begin posting at 10 pm July 26, and we will upload our last post at 10 pm July 27.

We’ve chosen a charity that helps villages in Mali.  I will have more information on the charity and an actual page where you can donate tomorrow.  It’s going to a great cause, so any bit that you can help with would be much appreciated.

**Update:

Invoke has set a fund raising goal of $1000 for the blogathon.  If you would like to support our efforts - which we would greatly appreciate - you can make a donation to the cause here (the page will be going live later today).  Invoke has chosen a charity that is very close to Invoke’s heart - The Lochmaddy Foundation.  Invoke is connected to this charity through Dario Meli and David Tedman who sit on the board. Through the Lochmaddy Foundation, all donations will be directed to a community in Mali, West Africa. Families in N’Gouraba are working hard to improve their lives and the lives of their children through a special agricultural project. Your donation will empower and enable them to realize increased crops, more family income with new opportunities and a brighter future.

We are collecting donations through Plan Canada who are our partner on the ground there.  I would like to thank them and specifically Heather for all of their hard work in helping Invoke bring this all together.