It’s probably kind of obvious from this blog that when I’m not falling flat on my face or having a melt down because I have to cook a turkey, I like to travel — a lot.
When we travel we are often privileged to see, hear, taste and feel the beauty that humankind and nature create. However, there are times when what we see is heartbreaking.
The Daily Work of Finding and Carrying Water in Haiti (Photo water.org)
In 2008, four travel bloggers decided to do something other than feel sorry about the suffering they witnessed. Thus was born “Passports with Purpose”. Each year, the organizers, partner with a carefully vetted non-profit to help fund a particular project. You can read about their past projects here.
This year, Passports with Purpose is raising donations for Water.Org. The goal is to raise $100,000 to fund five wells to provide clean water in Haiti. The statistics quantifying the death and disease caused by lack of access to clean water around the world are quite frankly staggering. Here in the United States we mindlessly access clean, safe water for drinking, cooking and sanitation, multiple times a day by turning on a faucet. In much of the world, the search for water is a consuming daily task and is a matter of life and death.
So, here is your chance to do well by doing good. Passports with Purpose reaches out to travel bloggers around the world to contribute publicity, and IMHO, awesome prizes for donors. For example, one prize is a 26 day tour on the Silk Road in Central Asia. Another is an 8 night Amazon River cruise. If you don’t actually like to travel and you read my blog just because we’re friends — or you gave birth to me — or I gave birth to you — how about a one night staycation at the Omni Hotel in Independence Park in Philadelphia or a ukulele from the Hawaiian island of Kauai. There really are prizes that will appeal to everyone. All you have to do to earn one entry to win a particular prize is to donate $10.00. You can register multiple $10 entries for one prize, or spread your largess around multiple prize choices. And, get this –your contribution is tax deductible.
The deadline for contributions that will register you for prize entries is December, 11, 2012 at 11:59 P.M. P.S.T. (although you are certainly free to contribute after that). Prize winners from the random drawings for each prize will be notified by email on December 18, 2012 and will have three business days to claim their prize. If you are like me and like to know the rules, you can read them here. (As a lawyer, I find them refreshingly easy to understand. I’m sure I could have come up with more fine print.)
Obviously, the odds of winning any particular prize vary with the number of entries, but I’m pretty sure I can safely go out on a limb and speculate that they are significantly better than those for the recent Powerball lottery drawing.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Of course, I donated. I registered all my entries for two prizes—but I forget what they are. I guess I’ll find out on December 18th if I receive an email telling me I won a prize.
Thanks from the whole Passports team for this great post – and here’s hoping you signed up for prizes you like and that you win! 🙂
Many thanks to the Passports With Purpose Team…and “Just One Boomer” for letting me know about this opportunity to help Water.org. I donated and registered for a few prizes. If I find extra money in my checking account before Dec 11th, I’ll make sure to donate more money to this worthy cause.
Thanks so much, Lucretia. I hope you’re a prize winner.