29 Dec

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year 2010!

The New Year is a time for setting goals; for bettering ourselves and getting closer to that ‘ideal person’ we hope to become. I’m nowhere near that mythical ‘ideal person,’ but for the first time in my life, I truly feel I’ve become the person I want to be. I wake up each morning happy with the goal I’m working towards, and feeling like I’m doing exactly what I’m meant to do in life. I’m lucky to have this opportunity, for as you know, many people around the world are struck by such poverty that they’re never able to pursue their dreams.

There’s still things about myself, however, that I’d like to change. My stomach seems to know no boundaries, expanding past my waistband to inch ever closer to its own dreams—one of which seems to be the dream of someday becoming the new mascot for Pillsbury. I know, however, that if I ate at home more often, and ate at restaurants less often, I’d not only save money, but I’d also lose some of this weight.

Shortly after I started work on Ferdinand, I made a list of expenses in my life. My house payments, cable bill, various web services, magazine subscriptions—these were just a few of my expenses. Then I tried to figure out where Ferdinand fit in my list of priorities. The answer was at the top. It was more important than any of my other expenses. So I started cutting stuff out of my life. I had a garage sale, sold all my furniture, my appliances, most of my DVDs, records and books, and was left with an empty house. Then I got rid of that too. I left my house and now live happily rent-free at my parents’ home while I work to get everything ready for Ferdinand to launch.

Moving into my old bedroom at my parents’ house really was an eye-opener, though. I thought I had gotten rid of most all of my stuff, but, you see, my parents have a funny way of not getting rid of my old things. My room is full of books I’ve read that I’ll probably never read again, DVDs that I don’t need, and various detritus that I don’t need in my life. Before too long, I’m going to haul a lot of it to Goodwill, but before I do that, I’d like to make you an offer. In the coming week or so, I’m going to take a photo of some of the books I’m willing to give away, and post it to our Facebook page. The first person to tag their name on one of the books will get to have that book. No matter where in the world you are.

I know a lot of our readers love books, but some don’t get the opportunity to buy them very often, so now’s your chance to get a cool free book. If you’re not already a fan on our Facebook page, become one!

Saving money is a beautiful thing.
When’s the last time you closely examined your expenses? For most of us, there’s little luxuries that we take for granted, and never think twice about spending money on. $5 cups of coffee from Starbucks. Meals eaten out at restaurants. Movies watched on the silver screen. These expenses eat away at our finances until there’s nothing left to spend, yet we don’t even think twice about them.

But when it comes time to pledge money to get a school built, we have to stop and think twice.

There’s many things we all can do to save money. Cutting down on dining out, for one, but you’re creative and can surely think of countless ways to cut down expenses.

Why don’t you make it your New Year’s resolution to do whatever it takes to make sure our school gets built? Think about it this way: if our goal is reached, you can say that you, personally, are the reason a design school is getting built in the Philippines. You, personally, are the reason countless students will be able to have access to quality design education, and have the opportunity to follow their own dreams. You, personally, are the reason that street children will further their education and get healthy meals.

You, personally, can be a person who makes wonderful things happen.

Here’s another idea: ask your colleagues at work to chip in and pledge money along with you. They’ll be in good company. And ask your boss if the company can match any donations their employees make. Tell them if their company pledges $100 or more, they’ll get the company name on a wall in our finished building.

Have a band? Throw a benefit concert.

Have some artwork you can sell? Sell it, so that a school may be built!

If you pledge money today, your credit cards won’t get charged until March 14th.

If getting this project off the ground isn’t enough of an incentive, though, we have some other really cool rewards for donors.

If you pledge $25 (about 1,150 PHP) or more, you’ll get your name published on our site, along with a link to your blog, portfolio, company site, or any organization’s site you want. This is a great way to advertise your site, or a cause you support.

If you pledge $50 (about 2,300 PHP) or more, you’ll get the above, PLUS a beautiful, limited edition poster, designed exclusively for this fundraiser. We’ll announce more about this poster soon, but trust me, you’ll want one.

If you pledge $100 (about 4,600 PHP) or more, you’ll get the link, the beautiful limited edition poster, as well as your name prominently displayed in three-dimensional letters on a wall of our finished building.

If you pledge $300 (about 13,800 PHP) or more, you’ll get all the above, but your name will be displayed in XL three-dimensional letters on the wall.

If you pledge $5,000 (about 230,000 PHP) or more, you’ll get all of the above, but with XXL three-dimensional letters AND you’ll get to DICTATE MY HAIRSTYLES FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR! Anything you want! Mohawk, afro, bowl cut. Go wild.

We hope you view this cause as something important enough to help out. We will do anything possible to get it off the ground, but it’s not possible without your help.

Thanks, and Manigong Bagong Taon! (Happy New Year!)
—Les

Comment & Trackback


Add a Comment



XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>




Copyright © 2008-2011 Ferdinand Center for the Creative | Blog | Store | Support us | Events | Contact us | About us | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy