If you follow CBM on
Facebook,
Twitter, or
YouTube (or me personally), you've probably seen my big "Be A Hero" push this week. I thought I would take a moment to share with the CBM community what it is I'm doing, why, how you can help and how the project came about.
What Are We Doing And Why?
In a nutshell CBM is teaming up with SLV5 and O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) for a one week fundraising drive to raise money for a mission/rescue. SLV5 is part of a personal growth and leadership program that I joined about six months ago. The final phase of the leadership program is to create a "Legacy" project (
basically a one week push to raise funds for a charity). We have very strict criteria regarding which charity we could support, including maximum administration fees, the majority of money raised has to go to the actual charity, be approved by the Spectrum Education Las Vegas organization, etc. Did you know that some charities keep 85% of the donations and only 15%, or less, actually get put to work to "help"?!
Myself and the other 20 members of the team have chosen to raise funds for O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) to help combat the problem of human trafficking and slavery. In particular we're focused on ending child slavery and sex trafficking. If you know anything about their program, or are a parent, it was an easy decision. The fact that an earlier Spectrum team raised funds for O.U.R. that resulted in a mission in my home state of Utah, where 12 children were rescued (all under the age of 11), was icing on the cake. They get results and save actual lives.
What's The "Be A Hero" Push All About?
After discussing the charity with our team, and being the comic nerd that I am, I couldn't get the idea of being a "Hero" out of my thoughts. These people save lives. They save kids from being sold over and over. They save children from being used for labor, organ harvesting and MUCH worse. I won't get into it, but if you've watched the video I put together, you'll know what I'm referring to. By donating and funding an actual mission/rescue, you get to be a small part of that and make a real difference. If you
haven't watched my video, I've included it below.
I decided to make a short one minute video to drive the point home of what we're trying to do. After spending 4-6 VERY rough hours going through all of O.U.R.'s YouTube videos, I came up with what you see below.
There are so many other facts and figures that I could have included, but it would have been a 20 minute video. There are estimated to be 10 million children currently enslaved. Of those 10 million, 2 million are being used in sex slavery. Used and abused over and over and even resold. It's a nightmare.
How Can You Help?
It's easy. Donate! Any amount helps, even if it's only $1. All donations are tax deductible and go to fund an actual mission where Operation Underground Railroad will save lives. Past missions have saved anywhere from 10 to 50+ children. The perpetrators and ring leaders, the "Bad Guys", are arrested. The best part is that as a donor, you get updates on what's happening with the missions, how many children are saved and how many people are arrested.
When You Donate...
O.U.R. has set up a donation page specifically for us, but and this is
VERY IMPORTANT, when you donate you must put "CBM", "ComicBookMovie", or my name ("Nate") in the comment box of the donation form. It's archaic with today's technologies, but it's the only way we have to track where the donations originated between the 21 different team members behind the push.
The other thing to keep in mind is that our
fundraising drive ends on 5/13, so time is of the essence!
Why's Tracking The Source Of Donations So Important?
It's vital for the donations from CBM be tracked for one simple reason; BLS, the parent company of CBM is matching every dollar donated through CBM. We're so passionate about it that we're willing to donate up to $10,000, matching dollar for dollar what is generated via the CBM community. By including something in the comments about CBM, or myself, we KNOW without a doubt where the money came from and will match it up to $10K.
Where's The Donation Link!?
I've purposefully saved the link for the end because the tracking issue (make sure and let them know you found it because of CBM). When you're ready to donate, visit
https://www.yourrescue.org/with/SLV5-Legacy.
There is additional information regarding O.U.R., some FAQs and even a video that they put together regarding their mission and what they do.
Want To Learn More About The Personal Development/Leadership Program?
Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to learn more about the Spectrum Education program I'm involved in. It's broken up into three workshops. The first two workshops focus on things holding you back, realizing YOUR importance to the world and rediscovering your dreams and passions. The third workshop is all about leadership, setting goals and (more importantly) achieving them. It's made a world of difference in my life and it's one of the few things that I would recommend EVERYONE do.
You can also learn more by visiting
http://www.spectrumeducationlv.com/. There are new workshops beginning every six months, with the next one beginning the last weekend of June.