Q: What made you interested in joining the project?
It’s sort of a two part answer: what got me interested in the first place and what made me follow through when it came time to really get involved.
When I first heard about the project idea, I was walking into the kitchen of my then apartment where Dustin and Derek were having a conversation. They had been discussing how they had previously bounced around the idea of building a school in Cambodia and thought that the right time to start it was approaching. At first I thought I must have misheard them, because honestly who sits in a kitchen and just starts talking about building a school on the other side of the world? But once I asked some questions and understood what they were talking about, I was instantly interested. This wasn’t the kind of project that I was used to hearing about from my friends, let alone in my own kitchen. This was one of those stories you read about someone else who accomplished their impossible goal and think, “Wow, that so cool”, but don’t even consider whether you could have been the one to do it. Sure, I had thought about projects like that, but it usually never got past the idea phase before I decided it wasn’t practical for one reason or another. But this time, I could feel that something was different. In the short time I had known Dustin and Derek, I learned that if they agreed to do something, at the very least they’d genuinely try their best to see it through. So I figured if they were going to give it their full effort and attention, maybe one more person could lighten their load and help make it a little bit more achievable. And just like that, I told them I was onboard.
Eventually, we had to move from planning and research to actual pledge amounts that we could work with. Like the other members of the team, I had been donating some amount of money to charity each year. Personally, I had been setting aside a percentage of my total income to donate each year. It felt nice to donate, but I felt strange simply moving a numbers around between banking systems and hoping that it translated to some tangible good impact on the world. I used tools like Charity Compass to ensure that the charities I donated to were at least spending my money on the advertised causes, but I still never really knew how the money was being used and couldn’t see the end effect. This project presented a great way to go a bit further and have direct involvement in the project that I supported. So I set aside the amount of money equivalent to what I would have donated over the next few years as a my portion of the funding.
Now that we’ve completed our initial goal, I can say that my initial feelings were on the right track. It’s one thing to know that I funded someone somewhere making a positive change, but with this project I got to be that person who did the actual work that I was trying to fund. I know it may not be everyone’s preferred way of giving back, but having completed our first school, I can say that it felt great being one of the people who dedicated the time, money, and effort necessary to achieve our goal. I would absolutely recommend something similar for anyone who feels the same way that I did and has the ability to get involved with a cause like this. Personally, I can’t wait for our next project!
