Gwen's ramble on November 13th, 2005

Hey everyone!!

Well, it felt a little strange to be back over in Green Lake after our Madison Park runs, but the change in scenery was welcomed. 12 miles seemed like a piece of cake after our 20, 17, and 15 mile runs! It seems so funny to say that 12 miles seems easy, but that’s what those long runs do, I guess. Great run to Golden Gardens, the Ballard Locks, Freemont, and back to Green Lake—running with quite a few of the Asha runners. David takes off like a rabbit at the start, which is great for me, because I’m slow to start. Rick keeps me going in the middle with great conversation about his trips around the world. By the end, we’re all trying to keep up with Sumanth, who should post a great time! I’m adjusting to eating the chocolate flavored Goo, and Rick keeps me supplied with Sharkeys—very cool little gummy candies. How is everyone doing on the mid-week workouts? I’ve added in some bike rides in order to keep the pressure off my joints. Can’t believe the marathon is almost here!!

Some announcements:

Funds raised so far:

We wanted to congratulate all for reaching our first major milestone in terms of fund raising (20% of our total goal). We have raised $10,131.55 ($6101.55 from online donations, $430 from our various booths and $3600 from Individual donors for our training). Leading the pack is David Salesin who has already crossed his stated goal of $2000. Yea David!!! Great, great job everyone. This is really exciting to surge forward like this. David gave me some great tips for fundraising while we were running. He said that it always works to ask people for more money than you think you’ll receive, and to send a reminder email to everyone a couple weeks or a week before the race. So, send those reminders!

Updates on the website:

We will be doing some changes on our homepage in next couple of days. The idea is to make these pages more project specific. Ideally, we want to demonstrate how the donor’s money has brought about changes in the lives of the marginalized in the society.

T shirts:

We have confirmed ETA on the miles4smiles t-shirts. We will be receiving the t-shirts on November 15, 2005, and you can pick up yours from Tarun on the 19th (that Saturday run).

Parties:

We are planning to have both a pre marathon and post marathon get-together (Yes! Running is all about parties these daysJ).

The pre marathon party would involve a carefully prepared carbohydrate dinner on Friday evening appropriate for pre-event preparation. Furthermore, we will also have the Asha ‘gu’ station volunteers joining us on this event – may be all of us as a group can prepare some banners or posters calling your name.

Further, running a marathon is a great achievement for all of us as a group – as an individual accomplishment and for the cause that we have been working for. So, we have good reasons to get together on the evening of November 27th, 2005.

Details to follow!!!

So, keep running, smiling, and fundraising!!!!

--Gwen

Gwen's ramble on November 6th, 2005

Hi Everyone!!!

Wow, yesterday was an intense day to run. The rain was definitely a consistent factor, and I was glad we’d run our 20 miler the weekend before. Rick and I decided to tack on the Madison Park hill at the end of our run, and while my gluts felt the burn, I was glad to practice it. One of the things I like about the Madison Park run is that we pass each other, or end up stop for water at the same places, and have an opportunity for encouragement. It’s so inspiring to hear something as simple as, “Great job!” For the marathon, I plan to put my name on a bib and pin it on my shirt. I did this for a previous marathon, and hearing people cheers for me was very important during the hard parts of the course.

Some announcements:

Brave hearts of the week: We started training with a small group and an “Asha” (hope) for education in hearts. The small group has grown as many committed people joined in this effort. However, some of the people who shared our commitment to the cause had to, unfortunately, leave in the middle of the training program due to medical injuries. We appreciate the motivation of Priya Winebrenner and Kathleen Malaspina who were the brave hearts to join in Miles for Smiles but had to drop out due to injuries. We wish good luck and speedy recovery to them.

Funds raised so far:

So far we have raised $­7995.55 ($3965.55 from online donations, $432 from our various booths and $3600 from Individual donors for our training). This is a huge increase from last week—over twice what we had! Think about how much we can raise if we double our efforts! I sent out another round of emails, and asked my father to present my email and the Asha miles4smiles program at the local Rotary (the Rotarians are very supportive of educational programs in places like India, South America, and Africa). I’m trying to think of other ways to fundraise, so if anyone has any ideas, we should definitely share.

Projects Sponsored:

Given our good performance with fund raising, we are planning to extend support to MUSKAAN (http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=267) back into the list of projects. A description for both the projects (Muskaan and SUPPORT) can be found at http://www.ashanet.org/seattle/events/marathon/cause.php

We will encourage you to go through the details of these projects.

Further, the budget for SUPPORT and MUSKAN are online now and available on the CAUSE page. In case, you have more questions about the projects, please feel free to email Malti (maltir@hotmail.com) for SUPPORT and Ravi (ravi@u.washington.edu) for MUSKAN.

Updates on the website:

Profiles are online for every runner except Darren Massey and Mike Cohen. Make sure to check out your picture on your profile page, and let us know if you want to get the picture changed. Also, check out Rohan’s runner journal on miles4smiles runner’s discussion page.

Pictures Link: You can find the pictures of the kids for both the SUPPORT and MUSKAAN projects under this section.

New to the family:

A warm welcome to Jone Chung and Brian Carver from the miles4smiles team! Both the huskies are traveling the road less traveled – Jone has been training all by himself and Brian has vowed to do a half without trainingJ.

See you all next Saturday at Super Jock N’ Jill!
-- Gwen

Gwen's ramble on November 1st, 2005

Hey all!

This weekly ramble is a combination of efforts from Amit, Tarun, and Gwen. Now that the weather has turned, and the leaves are getting mushy, it’s time to dig deep and think about fundraising for the kids! I know that last Saturday’s 20 miler was a hard one for me. I was running with Steve and Samanth, and they were intense! I didn’t think I could finish in 3 hours flat, but thanks to them, I made it! And, the pain was worthwhile, as I see people responding to my email about Asha and miles4smiles.

Some announcements:

Runner of the week:

Lubdha for her consistency and meticulous planning with running. Vikas (ask Chuck to pronounce his name ;)) chickened out under the aegis of work at office, however, Lubdha still came out and ran. Also, it feels awkward to write about oneself as the runner of the week – however, I (Amit Saxena) have been awarded with the title of runner of the week and slacker of rambles.

Funds raised so far:

So, far we have raised $­­­­­2586.55 ($2154.55 from online donations) and $432 from our various booths and stalls. In case, if anyone is wondering why the funds raised so far has 55 cents in it – ask Ken at quasarandnemesis@comcast.net.

Talk up the marathon!!!! Our goal of raising $50,000 is an ambitious one, however, if we start sending our friends and contacts emails about this run, we will be able to make it. If you’re standing in line getting coffee or tea, make sure to mention your most recent run and how you are excited to be fundraising—or something along those lines. So, don’t wait anymore and start doing the fund-raising once your profile is up and ready to go. Further, we are working hard to get an exact bifurcation of the funds usage.

Updates on the website:

Profiles are online for Manoj and Srijan, Rohan, Satish, Gwen, Rick, and David. Make sure to check out your picture on your profile page, and let us know if you want to get the picture changed. Also, check out Vikas’s runner journal on miles4smiles runner’s discussion page.

Further, those who have not sent their profiles so far, your pictures are there. So, random people may remind you to send the profile to Tarun. (tarun.bhalla@gmail.com).

Booths of the week:

Ashita, Yogita, Tarun and Tulsi manned our tea and merchandize stall at “AllGoRhythms” this Saturday, October 22^nd 2005 at Kane Hall (U-dub). The booth brought in a whooping $308 to our fund raising effort – You can check out the pictures at the miles4smiles website.

Rohan did a brave job of drinking tea from us and not helping us – we were waiting for a helping hand from you runner!! Rohan has been advised by the doctor to take care of his foot, well Good Luck Rohan, hopefully we can still have you in our running team.

New to the family:

A warm welcome to Gwen, Mike, Zoheb and Amol from the miles4smiles team!

-- Gwen