Kara Bright was a man with a dream. A dream he never lived to see become a reality, but with the help of four of his closest friends, his dream to create a non-profit organization is finally coming true. With that, The Brightway Center,  a non-profit organization geared toward Christian student athletes, has been created.

One of those individuals is the treasurer, George Spack. George was my former high school teacher, who grew to become one of my dearest friends, and biggest role models. And if any one reading this article could have the honor of meeting him, they would wholeheartedly agree. Including myself, George has inspired his students to become everything they could become by pushing them to their utmost potential.

George met Kara Bright in 1984 at a college basketball game. The two had a strong bond from the start, and both shared a vision to impact student athletes in a positive way. George did not re-connect with Kara until twelve years later in 1996.

Like George, Kara was a teacher and basketball coach, as well as a leader in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Coach Bright, whose nickname was Cobby, attended Ohio State University and then left to serve 17 months in the Korean War. After he returned from battle, Kara decided to go back to school and get his Master’s Degree in Education at the University of Mississippi. Over Kara’s career, he taught and coached a variety of sports including basketball, football and track before his retirement in 1987.

As Kara’s health deteriorated, he asked George to become the executor of his estate. George and Daryle Griffin, a dear friend of Kara’s, went to the hospital to visit Kara, where Kara repeated his vision for the Brightway Center. He passed away a few days later in 2005.

His four close friends, who became most dedicated to upholding Kara’s dream and Brightway’s future, included George, Clifton Spinner, Jon Swires, and the President and CEO of Brightway, Daryle Griffin. As a Christian, Kara put his utmost trust in these four charter members, by leaving his life savings in order to help create the Brightway Center. Brightway consists of nearly two hundred acres of land located near Smithfield, Ohio, a dream Kara wanted to achieve his entire lifetime.

Kara once said, “The biggest reward is getting calls and letters from young people who remember the life changing experiences of our FCA retreats.” Kara also added that, “We need to show more compassion. We need to teach kids to think for themselves, instead of following the crowd or popular opinion blindly.” And with those words, that is exactly what the charter members decided to do.

In order to get the program underway as soon as possible, the Board of Directors decided to put its first focus on “The Homestead,” which involved the renovation of Kara Bright’s farmhouse where he lived most of his life. The Homestead houses Brightway’s administrative offices in addition to special events, educational programming, open houses and workshops.

The Brightway Center will give Christian student athletes a place to retreat, in order to examine and grow their faith, improve their minds and promote healthier living. It will also give them the opportunity to seek higher education, an opportunity that they might not have had without the Brightway Center.

Brightway’s plans for 2012 include fundraising for the Pavilion, a large project that is expected to be completed in 2013. The Pavilion will hold a capacity of up to 350 people for weddings, retreats, tournaments, corporate meetings and senior citizen gatherings.

The Brightway Center will be presenting a 5K Obstacle Benefit Race called “Race for the Roc” on Saturday June 9^th, 2012 at the Memorial Park in Salem, Ohio. To sign up, go to www.racefortheroc.com.

To make a donation to the Brightway Center or to learn more about Brightway’s mission, please go to www.BrightwayCenter.org.

Also, Brightway would like to give a special thanks to board members Steve Luke and Michael Madison as well as Jennifer Trehar, Director of Advancement and Cathy Takach, Director of Property Management, for dedicating themselves in order to make Kara’s vision come true.

Sherry Matthews, a volunteer for Brightway and friend of Kara’s once said, “Now we’re going to see the results, Cobby, of the seeds that you planted, for all the children who you loved so much.” It looks like Cobby is going to continue impacting children in a positive way, as his legacy lives on through the Brightway Center.

Image Courtesy of   Jamie Roach / Shutterstock.com

The article In Tribute to Kara Bright: Setting a Bright Future for Student-Athletes appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A small Israeli non-profit organization that has pioneered the concept of distributed life-saving has captured the imagination of the world.  So much so, that its founder, Eli Beer, has been invited to speak at the international community’s most prestigious event, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting taking place in Davos, Switzerland, Jan, 25 -29, 2012.

Beer will brief world leaders on how he took the concept of distributed computing and applied it to saving lives all across Israel.  His organization, United Hatzalah of Israel, is comprised of more than 1,700 volunteers who are trained and certified as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s), paramedics or doctors, and are located in communities, cities and kibbutzim throughout the entire State of Israel.

Using proprietary GPS identification, communication and deployment technologies to minimize response times, volunteers are able to establish a life-saving bridge of medical care to more than 190,000 people each year, within two to three minutes of a distress call, completely free of charge. Volunteers treat an average of 500 people each day and individually respond to an average of 360 calls per year inIsrael.

United Hatzalah volunteers come from all backgrounds – secular and religious, Jewish and non-Jewish – and serve all people without regard to race or religion. Not only have the volunteers been able to redefine the government’s status quo of emergency first response, Arab and Jews are also working together, side-by-side, and have been able to break down religious barriers through United Hatzalah’s sole mission and unifying motivation: to save as many lives as possible.

“When I was a young boy growing up in Jerusalem, I witnessed a horrific bus bombing on my way home from school and watched people dying in vain as they waited too long for medical services to arrive. The horrific images were emblazed in my memory and ultimately lead me to the idea of United Hatzalah – a group able to save lives, Jew and Arab alike, no matter the place or circumstance,” said Eli Beer, founder of United Hatzalah of Israel, formally established as an independent, non-profit organization in 2006.

Given the success that United Hatzalah has experienced in Israel and the thousands of lives it has saved since its inception, United Hatzalah believes that its distributed emergency response model can be easily replicated to save lives throughout the world. United Hatzalah has already been recognized as an international leader and is currently collaborating with rescue organizations in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“The common thread of life itself can create a bond that runs deeper than any religious, political or racial association. When a Jewish volunteer responds to an emergency in an Arab community or vice versa and helps save a parent, child or loved one, the community slowly gains their trust. When people recognize that we all share the same basic elements of life they are willing to come together for a common good,” said Beer.

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From Saturday, September 24, 2011, eastern Europe should consider itself cleaner as a result of one of the largest voluntary movements in Romania. “Let’s Do It Romania!” or what should become “The National Cleaning-up Day,” motivated 250,000 people to become actively involved in cleaning up their country.

Launched as a response to a successful Estonian idea, “Let’s Do It 2008!”, “Let’s Do It, Romania!” had its first event last year, when 200,000 people participated. The aim was to collect as much garbage from natural areas as possible in only one day with the help of volunteers.

Long before the chosen date, a whole organizational system was build from central, regional, and departmental teams to the involvement of shareholders, the mapping of garbage and the establishment of communication networks.

In addition to the clean-up effort, “Let’s Bike It, Romania!,” an event from earlier this year, people took their bikes and went for a bit of adventure and pleasure while mapping garbage spots on GPS references system. The 250,000 volunteers marked their presence on Saturday.

Early in the morning, the teams went to their assigned spots, supplied with gloves and bags. Until 3 p.m., forests, barbecue places, and valleys – all were cleaned-up.  The national campaign resulted in 350,000 garbage bags at a first count with final statistics to be given this week.

In the year of volunteering, “Let’s Do It, Romania!” brought together individuals, students and professors, employers and employees, non-profit organizations and private companies, under the same message: “Ff there’s something that bothers you, take action, be the change you want to see around!” as stated on the official web-site “Let’s Do It, Romania!”

“They explained that it is extremely difficult to mobilize Romanians. That they are not like Estonians. That the country is huge. That Romanians don’t like volunteer work. That the Romanian team has had many meetings, but results are not much. That they are kind of stuck. That was an honest discussion.

Frankly, I could see it was not easy for them. They had worked hard for a dream. We tried to figure what to do. I urged them to go mapping at least few spots and go from there. To keep trying,” remembers Rainer Nõlvak, one of the organizers of “Let’s Do It, 2008!” on the Let’s Do It, World! website, about one of the first meeting with the Romanian initiators.

Hanks to their determination, a quarter of million people at the second country clean-up proved their active support and registered another success of the campaign, nationally. The project is already catching on in different countries farther than Romania and Europe.

In 2008, different countries subscribed to the “Let’s Do It, World!” campaign:

Estonia (2008 – 50,000 volunteers),
Latvia (2008- 50,000; 2009- 110,000; 2010- 150,000),
Lithuania (2008 – 6,000; 2009 – 100,000; 2010 – 200,000),
Portugal (2010 – 110,000),
Slovenia (2010 – 275,000),
New Delhi, India (2010 – 50,000),
Kerala, India (2010 – 4,100),
Moldova (2011 – 113,000).

Further action is expected for Bangladesh, Ukraine, Brazil, Finland, Netherlands, France, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Russia, Thailand, Austria, Italy, and California. “Let’s Do It, World!” could become one of the greatest citizens’ initiatives in the world, where each of us could have a say in the cleaning-up of our environment.

However, strongly recommended would be a secondary project of “Let’s Keep it Clean!” which would very probably add sustainability to the project and double the results. Until then, let’s just hope the goal of this civic movement will be soon achieved: a world free of waste!

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/d-i-a/

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Mobile campaigns can be divided into two types – pull or push campaigns. A pull campaign works as part of a larger media campaign since the campaign has to be advertised using other means. The organization might use email, television, the Internet, or billboards to advertise a mobile marketing campaign.

The user responds to a call to action by texting a certain keyword or message to a common short code. On the other hand, a push campaign requires an initial opt-in database of mobile numbers, although organizations should be aware that the Mobile Marketing Association’s Code of Conduct stipulates that users must opt in to a campaign in order to contact.

Since push campaign do not require additional marketing in other media forms, they are easier for an organization to set up and manage if the organization already has a database of constituents.

However, in order to reach a successful mobile campaign, a non-profit organization needs to take many strategic steps into consideration. Jenifer Snyder, Executive Director of The mGive Foundation, an organization that solicits contributions in all states working to enhance the mobile giving ecosystem, came up with some essential tips for non-profits hoping to start their own text-based initiatives.

Know The Rules
In order to launch a mobile campaign, organizations must have 501©(3) non-profit status, file a form 990 demonstrating an annual budget of at least $500,000, have been in operation for at least a year and report all of its expenses to the public.

“However, with non-profit organizations that can’t have a half a million dollar annual budget, MobiPledge and Momares are one of appropriate solutions designed specifically for small non-profits with shorter histories” said Jenifer Snyder.

Build Your Foundation
It’s a fact that a mobile campaign can do much more than just ask for money. Before your organization thinks about a fundraising campaign, you need phone numbers. Consult with your provider or with other organizations that have used mobile campaigning to determine the number of people you can expect to participate in your campaign.

A strong database is one of the most important aspects to consider before launching a mobile campaign. Once you have collected a large group of phone numbers and organized the lists, it’s time for your organization to kick off the campaign.

Engage
Your key task is to turn your campaign goals into reality by figuring out how to reach your audiences and get them to participate. Do not send an immediate request for money without making a good first impression of your organization and your mission.

Remember that with your marketing effort, you can appeal to your subscribers’ emotions and then lead them join your mobile campaign.

Think Big
“Big events with big audiences are the best opportunity to solicit text message donations. Because text campaign seek micro-donations, the moment your non-profit has its largest captive audience is best to launch a campaign” Jenifer Snyder emphasized.

Think Outside the Box
Mobile messaging is about interaction, not just a one-way pitch. This offers your organization a unique opportunity to find volunteers for specific events or inform people about rally. Your organization should concise that mobile campaign is not only to solicit donations but to do much more.

Don’t Oversaturate
Snyder claims that 85% of text messages are read within 15 minutes of being received. This mean that there is a higher chance your audience will read text messages sooner than email in their inbox.

Text messages generally have better conversion rate. Nevertheless, your organization should be aware that the messages can become overwhelming and unwanted .

Try to limit donation inquiries to once a month, followed by a message of appreciation to those who donated. Encouraging ongoing engagement is an effective way to retain your participators.

Know the Limitations
Even though itis likely that a mobile campaign’s advantages outweigh its disadvantages, the non-profit campaigns still need to be aware of their limitations. For example, while this sets a minimum (usually $5 or $10) for donation, it also limits larger donations, unless users want to text 100 times.

With the widespread of mobile technology, a mobile campaign today is a good tool for non-profit organizations.

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