Day 7: "Ripples...that together...can build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

January 16: Twenty-nine days left!

I had a great five-mile run tonight and the upped pace is feeling more and more comfortable. I don't think I'm going to match the time I hit during Marathon #2, but that's not really the point of Marathon #3!

Monday is the long awaited 10-miler, so wish me luck! :-) I've got my course set and I'm going to take-off right after work.

Thanks so much to Colleen Corcoran and Liz Sluder for their donations today! (And thanks, again, to everyone who has donated and pledged so far!) Thanks to you all, we're on pace to hit our $500 goal and, I believe, to pushing up to an even more ambitious goal!

It's obvious to me that I can't accomplish this without you. And, actually, it's rare that any one person accomplishes something ambitious without the help of many, many others. During my run last night, I was reminded of this quote from one of my heroes, Bobby Kennedy:

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Your $5 donation, or $10 donation, or $25 donation, or $100 donation, or even your $1 donation (seriously) is one tiny ripple of hope moving straight toward the lives of those Kindergartners, First-Graders, Second-Graders and Third-Graders at Akili Academy!

Five dollars won't do it alone -- but neither will running a marathon. Together, though, our tiniest ripples can join to create a modest current, which -- with the help of people we don't even know, and may never meet -- can help Akili achieve its fundraising goals and, in turn, provide those kids with an education that, for so many of them, will change the course of their lives forever.

We can do that! But you can't have the mightiest current without the tiniest ripple.

Have a Happy MLK Day!

Thanks,
Matt



P.S. You can donate online here: http://www.active.com/donate/daythirtyfive

You can play send checks (made out to "Matthew Haines" or "Akili Academy of New Orleans") to the following address:

Attn: Matt Haines
LPTP
200 Broadway Street, Suite #108
New Orleans, LA 70118

And you can watch this incredible video of Ted Kennedy giving Bobby Kennedy's eulogy (which includes the quote I reference above) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JTYnMpRyg