SOME is incredibly fortunate to have volunteers that continue to support SOME in any way possible during the COVID-19 crisis. Recently, two long-time volunteers, Jason and Kurt, created a unique fundraiser: they ran 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours to raise money for crucial SOME services.
Jason snaps a selfie post-run
Jason posted the challenge, created by ultra-athlete and retired Navy SEAL David Goggins, on his Instagram story and asked if anyone would be interested in donating to SOME. They thought they would raise $100 or $200, and were overwhelmed to see that they were well over $2,000. Their total now sits at $5,100 and was matched by Google to reach a whopping total of $10,200!
There were over 50 different individual donors that contributed to Jason and Kurt’s cause.
“We wanted to see if we could raise money for a charity that is operating in a space that hasn’t necessarily gotten a light shined on them during this time,” said Jason.
He added, “We knew that others were also continuing to provide essential services that may not be getting the same level of recognition. We’ve known SOME for several years and appreciate the suite of services attacking root causes of homelessness the organization and its staff provide. On the running side, we wanted an activity that was unique and challenging enough to get people behind us. We initially said that we were planning to do 4 miles every 4 hours for 24 hours, but that if we raised $1,000 for SOME we would double it—4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. We hit our initial fundraising goal within a few hours and the momentum never stopped.”
Kurt on the move during the 4x4x48
This was the first time that Jason and Kurt had coordinated an event of this magnitude.
“It was a combination of wanting to support the local community and promote SOME’s mission in a time of particular need, and wanting to see if we could get outside and push ourselves mentally and physically, (while respecting social distancing guidelines—but it turns out that’s very easy at 3 a.m.),” he said.
“We knew that if we had supporters making donations and taking even a few minutes to think about ways they can improve their community, it would be a valuable experience all around,” Jason added.
He concluded by saying, “There is never a bad time to contribute to an organization that is helping others. However, in times of particular need, we as individuals should focus on the collective community as much as we can. Find a cause you support and see how you can help—every contribution makes a difference. We raised $5,100 largely on $20-30 donations.”
Thank you to all of our great volunteers and donors!