Category Archives: Fundraising

Fundraising

Weekly update: 23 races and $37,219 raised!

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I hope you’re having a great weekend. It’s now the 18th of July, and we’re a little over two weeks into the second half of the year. The great news is we’ve now raised $37,219 for the GBS/CIDP Foundation, and the bad news is I’ve only run 23 of my 52 races.

Weekly stats: 72% of the way to our fundraising goal, and 44% of the way to our running goal.

What’s happened this week?

Well, there’s been some generous donations! Jake Villarreal from Match Relevant was very generous in donating $250. My old school buddy Alister Foley donated $100. And a mystery donor (I know who you are, and I think you’re awesome!) donated $1,000. Great week, but still a long way to go to reach our goal of $52,000 this year.
On the running, the good news is I’ve finally put Race #23 behind me. I’ve been having all sorts of left leg issues, which are a mixture of ankle and Achilles problems. Since I’m wise enough to know that discretion is the better part of valor, I bailed on last week’s 10k trail race and took another week of rest. It’s done wonders, and today’s race was fine. My race report will be up soon at http://fiftytwofives.com
See you next time!
Fundraising

Weekly update: 22 races, nearly $37,000!

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It’s the Fourth of July weekend. Happy Independence Day to everyone here in the USA! And this weekend also marks the half way mark of our charity fundraiser and awareness-raiser for the GBS/CIDP Foundation.

I’ve run only 22 races, which puts me 4 races behind the pace. Time to get moving! But the fundraising is going well — $35,869 raised out of our goal of $52,000. While that sounds impressive, it’s getting harder and harder to keep the fundraising moving — so please pass on the word to your friends, and encourage them to contribute too!

Weekly stats: 69% complete on the fundraising goal, and 42% complete on the running goal.

What’s happened this week?

Please thank my good friends at Riviera Partners, particularly Ali Benham, for their generous donation to the fundraiser. If you’re looking for a tech recruiting firm, especially for engineering roles, then these guys are great — and fantastic corporate citizens too.

Please also thank Valerie Nygaard for coming back and donating a second time! Wow.

We ran one race this week, the Morgan Hill Freedom Fest 5k.

Fundraising

Weekly update: we are over $35,000!

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As of June 27, we have raised $35,219 for the Foundation. Isn’t that awesome? Less than $17,000 to go our goal of $52,000 in 2015 — still a long way, but I know we can do it!

And one more race run in the past two weeks, so that takes the total to 21 out of 52. I’ve got a way to go!

Weekly stats: 40% of the way to our running goal, and 68% of the way to our fundraising goal.

So, what happened in the past two weeks or so?

Three amazing people generously supported our campaign of year-long awareness-raising of Guillane-Barre Syndrome. Tim Hoad donated $150, Arati Kadav donated $100, and Dottie Stamm also donated $100. Please join me in thanking them — they together pushed us over $35,000 and within $17,000 of our goal.

I did something to my ankle or foot or Achilles a couple of weeks ago. It puffed up like a balloon and was pretty sore. Plenty of ice and some rest got it back on track, but it’s been a little quiet on the running front. We ran this morning and put Race #21 behind us — but I’ve got to get moving as soon as this injury is safely behind me. Here’s my race report: https://fiftytwofives.com/2015/06/27/race-21-zoom-quarry-lakes-5k/

This week I’ll be working the email and the phones to get the donations driving hard forward again! And looking for cool races too!

See you next time!

Fundraising

Weekly update: 20 races down!

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Two more races run, and we’ve now raised $34,869 for the GBS/CIDP Foundation!

Progress so far: 67% (two-thirds!) of the way to our goal of $52,000, and 38% of the way to our awareness-raising goal of 52 races in 2015.

 

So, what happened this week?

The biggest news financially is that eBay donated $5,000 to our campaign. I’m proud to have worked for a company that values philanthropy so highly and supports so many important causes. Please join me in thanking John Donahoe and Robin Pitman in particular for their help – if you’re at eBay, please say thanks in person if you see them!

Add to that the generous contributions of $100 by Ravi Aringunram, Johnny Sheeley, and Peter Bell, and $25 from Thomas Moran. These are all special people – thank you to all of you! Together, you’re making a huge difference.

On the running front, I am working hard to get back on track. Back on track would be 26 races in the books by the end of June! Today, I’ve completed 20 races, and I’ve got two more planned for this weekend – and let’s see if I can find another two for the weekend after that. If I can pull that off, I’ll be at 24 races at the half way mark… we’ll get there!

We had a great time with the kids running the Bubble Run 5k. There’s a cool video in my race report. Selina and I also ran the Lupus 5k on Sunday, and my race report on that one is over here.

Fundraising

Oooh: we’re getting close to $30,000!

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We’ve now raised $29,494 for the GBS/CIDP Foundation! And I’ve run another race (finally!) to bring the total to 18.

So, that’s 57% of the way to our goal of $52,000, and 35% of the way to the goal of 52 races this year.

What’s happened this week?

It’s been a very cool week. John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, donated $1,000 to the fundraiser. It’s been amazing to see the support from the eBay community — and having John onboard really caps it off! Thank you, John.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, jumped in and donated $250. The Microsoft community has been just as amazing — thank you Satya for getting behind the campaign!

We also had a very generous donation from Maureen Dwyer of $250. We’re planning on running together — perhaps in LA, or maybe up in the Bay Area. I’ll look forward to celebrating Maureen’s donation in person! Thank you, Maureen.

My former colleague from Microsoft, Sarthak Shah, also donated $100. And Dilip Varadarajan, a former colleague from eBay, donated $25. See, I told you — these eBay and Microsoft folks are amazing! Thanks guys.

On the running front, race #18 is in the books. I ran the completely bonkers Trail Quake 5k (picture from before the start is above). Short summary: run up a big hill for 1.6 miles, turn around, and run down a big decline for 1.6 miles. Long summary: head over here.

See you all next week!
Fundraising

Weekly update: getting close to $28,000

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In the past 12 days, we’ve raised another $1,600 to bring our total raised to $27,869 for the GBS/CIDP Foundation. Cool, huh!

So, that’s 54% of the way to our goal, and still 33% of the way to our goal of running 52 races in 2015. I better get moving!

What’s happened this past 12 days?
Well, it’s been pretty amazing.
Christopher Payne, my good friend and former colleague at Microsoft and eBay, contributed an extremely generous $1,000. Thank you very much, Christopher.
Ken and Becca Moss, two great people I’ve also known for over 10 years and also through Microsoft and eBay, donated a huge $250. Thank you very much to both of you!
And that’s not all! Konstantin Goldin donated $100.  Garry Wiseman donated $100. Satish Katiyar donated $100. Priyanka Jain donated $100. John Muller donated $25, and Luke Hughes donated $10. Thank you to all of you, you’re very generous!
Thank you also again to everyone who’s been involved since February! It’s great to have the fundraising moving again. Indeed, it’s amazing what happens when someone donates — it seems like the word gets out, and others who’ve been meaning to contribute jump onboard too. In any case, please know that any donation, no matter how large or small, has a multiplier effect — and helps us get closer to our goal of $52,000.
Oh, and I’m back in the USA. The family and I had a great month in South and Central America (and we’re all in the picture above, which I think is from 2013). No races were run, so I’m a little behind. It’s time to get moving — and I am already scheming two races next weekend. Let’s see if I can run 6 to 8 races in June!
Fundraising

Well, hello there, $26,000!

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We made it to half-way! We’ve raised $26,134 for the GBS/CIDP Foundation that will go a long way to helping those with Guillane-Barre Syndrome and related conditions. Thank you again to all of you!

Weekly stats: we’re 50% of the way to the $52k goal, and still 33% of the way to the goal of running 52 races.

What’s happened in the past two weeks?

My good friend and former colleague Suhail Ansari generously donated $250. He’s opted for the “train or run a race” perk — one of my favorites — and I’m looking forward to seeing when he’ll take it up! My very good friend Rebecca Brown and her personal training company Pure Forme Training (give them a Like if you’re in Washington state!) donated $100 too. That’s wonderful news too! Thank you to both Suhail and Rebecca!
And, well, there hasn’t been enough racing, that’s for sure! I’ve tried to register for two races here in Buenos Aires and they’ve both been sold out. You wouldn’t believe how popular running is here in Argentina, and how large the races are — most seem to be capped at 10,000 or more, and sell out with no problems at all. So, instead, we’ve been just running around the parks in the city and enjoying ourselves — here’s a photo with my daughter Lucy in a Buenos Aires park after some running and Frisbee!
I’ll be around four races behind schedule when I get back to the US in early June. We’ll catch that up in no time 🙂
Cheers y Salud,
Hugh.
Fundraising

Weekly update: so, so close to $26,000!

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Oh, we’re so so so close to $26,000! We’re at $25,784, including $24,209 and $1,575 from direct and matching donations to the GBS/CIDP Foundation.There’s a huge opportunity there for someone to take us to half way and get their name in lights!

Weekly stats: 49.6% of the way to the $52k goal, and still 33% of the way to the running goal of 52 races.

What happened this week?

Always a great question! Well, my good friend and colleague from Redbubble, Barry Newstead, donated a generous $200 to the campaign. He deserves a ton of thanks for helping out patients with GBS and related conditions! Onya Barry!

I ran absolutely no races on the weekend! Instead, I flew from San Francisco to Buenos Aires, and settled in with the family for three weeks in a Spanish immersion school. It’s already been an amazing experience, and you can follow along with our daily blog posts over at http://thewilliamsadventure.com. I’m looking for a race for this weekend, and I’m optimistic you’ll be seeing some race times from South America soon!

The picture above is Selina and I taking a run around Buenos Aires today. What a fun city, and what a great day for a park run!

Hasta luego!

Fundraising

Weekly update: 17 races run, and 49% of the way to $52,000!

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We’ve now raised $25,584 for the GBS/CIDP Foundation. And I’ve run 17 of the 52 races I’m running this year to raise awareness for GBS!

Weekly stats: 49% of the way to the $52k goal, and 33% of the way to the running goal.

What happened this week?

It was another great week in FiftyTwoFives fundraising!

Qi Lu headed on over to IndieGoGo and donated a generous $250 to the cause. I also had a very generous $200 donation this week from Martin Hosking. It’s very cool that they’ve joined the nearly 100 people and organizations that have got behind this fundraiser. Thank you to them, and thank you to all of you!

I ran two races this week, and the race reports are posted here at http://fiftytwofives.com. In a Steve Bradbury style twist, I actually *won* a race — yes, that’s right, I’m the proud owner of a crystal trophy and a $25 gift certificate. You’ll have to read the report to learn more!

Fundraising

Weekly update: Fifteen races run!

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We’ve now raised $25,134 for the GBS/CIDP Foundation. That’s only $25 this week, but it’s a very cool story. Read on.

Weekly stats: 48% of the way to the $52k goal, and 29% of the way to the running goal.

What’s happened this week?

Getting the story out there about GBS and raising funds is truly energizing. I feel blessed to have recovered and to be able to turn a negative experience into a positive one — and all this is running is doing me only good! This has been one of those weeks where I’ve had a chance to talk to people close to me about why I’m doing this, and the positive feedback they’ve given me makes me feel great. Onward and upward!

This week we had a donation of $25. Norman Herms of Philly mailed a check into the GBS-CIDP Foundation International with the following message: “Please give this check to Hugh Williams. I do not have a computer. I had GBS in 1988 at 55 years old. After 65 hospital days and ten days of therapy I recovered 100%”. What a great man he is for donating through the good old snail mail! Thanks Norman (if you know him, pass on my thanks!).

We ran one race this week, the Brazen Racing Mt Diablo Trails Challenge 5k. My race report is here. All up, a very amazing place to run, and trail racing remains my favorite kind of running.

Next week, we’re planning two races. Can’t wait!