Monday, May 23, 2011

Uh. Done?

So.

When last I wrote, $990 was the big number. Then it was $971. Then $885. Then $860. Litlte by little, it started dropping.

Then I slacked off a little bit, spreadsheet-wise. Went to Davidson graduation. Saw a lot of great people. Three days went by.

When I made it back to my calculations with all of the newest checks and donations in front of me, I did a double take. I did my math again (because if you know me, you know I am NOT good at math). I got the same result.

Only $200 to go?!?!?!

I didn't post anything, just to be sure. A couple more checks came in. I scheduled the rest of my immunizations. We had another conference call. Another check. I e-mailed the spreadsheet to my parents, asked them to check over it.

"I got $3,480," I said.

"I got $3,480," my dad said.

Um. $20?

A friend of mine was at our mutual friends' wedding on Saturday. Hadn't seen her in about a year. "Oh! I need to write you a check!" she said to me.

"I'm only twenty dollars away from my goal," I told her.

Her eyes lit up and she started scribbling.

THANK YOU, everyone, for being so encouraging and supportive and GENEROUS as I raised this money! It means a lot to know that so many people are behind me. June 27 will be here before we know it, and your thoughts and prayers are so important to this journey. I look forward to sharing it with you!!

Claire

PS. I wrote a blog post for the A2S website a couple of weeks back -- check it out here!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Conference call #2: Visas!

Picture this: Lauren, Lindsay, and I have taken over the Sports Info office computers and are typing away furiously while Andrew stands ready at the printer, waiting for our documents to come whooshing out ("This is when it actually comes in handy to have a Nigerian passport!" he chuckles). We dash back and forth between computers and printer, checking our passport info, asking questions, making sure we input everything correctly. Meanwhile, Morgan and Eloise are on speaker phone from DC and MD, talking us through the process and filling out the visas themselves. Um, multi-tasking, anyone?

But the task is complete! Applications are submitted. And you guys have been amazing, and gotten me over halfway to my fundraising goal! As of this very second, I've raised $2,090 (in only 3 weeks!!) -- which leaves only $1,410 to go. If you're thinking of donating, or planning to, the sooner the better. Thanks to EVERYONE who has contributed, no matter the amount, every single bit helps a ton. It's really wonderful to have so much support behind me!

For those of you who are visiting this blog for the first time and want to learn more, check out my first post that explains what our trip is all about!

Happy weekend, everyone! (And good luck with finals to those in school!) 

Much love and many thanks!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Wow!

Today I hit the halfway point in my quest for $3,500 -- so it's all downhill from here, right? :-)

You guys have been so generous, and I really am blown away by how this fundraising effort is going and how many people are getting in touch. We have Conference Call #2 tomorrow, so I'll post an update after that as well.

$1,877 down,
$1,623 to go!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

-- Claire

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Progress, progress, progress

Team Nigeria 2011 (minus a few)
May 1st -- who decided this whole time-flies deal?
$1,442 raised, folks!
$2,058 to go! ANY amount is such a great help!
Pictured above you'll see me, Andrew, and Lauren -- all Nigeria 2011 team members. Your support means a lot to all of us!