On reaching $5K

My starting point was quite simple minded, perhaps even a little selfish. I just thought it would be mega-cool to build a well for a village of people who need it - because I can!

Having not done any solo fundraising before, I'm still amazed at how quickly everything fell into place once I got into it. I still remember the day after I started this campaign, I had butterflies in my stomach waking up worried about what I had gotten myself in to... where was I going to find US$5000 in three months?!! I really didn't have that many friends!!!! and how was I going to handle baking everyday?!! Will people be responsive at all?!! Am I going to be buying the well myself?!! Fears of uncertainty took over as I didn't plan anything properly, it was really a spontaneous decision one night after I stumbled through some links and got inspired by the videos on charity:water that I felt I needed to start straight away!

I wasn't the only skeptical one, nearly all the friends I told were saying I was crazy and baking everyday was impractical. At first I doubted my sanity as well, but my mind was constantly thinking about all the different ways I can spread the word about the cause. If I didn't know about the global water crisis, chances are people around me wouldn't be either.

After a couple of weeks of sticking to the plan and focusing on baking for colleagues, people around me started to take me seriously and I myself began to believe I might just be able to make the goal I had set. It wasn't easy business either, but bit by bit it all added up. I felt there was nothing to lose, and everything to gain if I just keep at it.

To my surprise, nice things started happening, nice people started appearing, everything just worked out! I was able to attract and sieve out the people who I'd love to be associated with not just within my social circle but also strangers :) I am glad I was able to inspire and share with others what I find meaningful and worthwhile.

Also, my blog analytic device tells me that in the last month, I had 2056 views of which 919 of them were unique views (eeeks, sorry I'm not that great of a writer)... the reason for setting up the blog was to let my loyal supporters follow my progress and so I don't spam people emails every morning, but it also served well as a great vehicle for spreading the word across the globe. Got to love technology!

so many Serbian visitors! (thanks to ksenja I think!)

I never anticipated the impact running this campaign would have to friends and family and I didn't tell my parents about it until they found out through a friend recently. I was planning to use family as a last resource if I wasn't able to reach my goal at the end lol.... but I can see now they are proud of what I'm doing she even stayed up to help me with Jess's muffin orders now she's visiting me.

To be honest, I'm not feeling as excited as I imagined I would be, the US$5k goal was just a number to me. I'm grateful I am able to give that amount away with a little sacrifice that I can make up for in time. I can't believe it all happened and I'm only half way through the three month campaign. Maybe I'm a little disappointed at a few people or friends I thought I had lol, or maybe humanity in general... this is something I'll have to try and get over. It has certainly been an eye-opening if not life changing experience?! What am I going to do next?!!

I know there are a lot of worthwhile charities out there, but somehow I related to this cause at a more personal level. Perhaps I died of thirst in my past life or something?! It's such a simple idea though, and 100% of all the money raise will go towards these water projects.

There were probably things I could have done better, but I'm very happy with how things have panned out naturally. So now that I've reached my initial goal, I have decided to run with the campaign until the end of September. There's still much work to be done! a second well is probably achievable in the time frame, except it might be a bit greedy (Confucious advises against greediness!) so I've decided what ever extra amount I raise I will put towards a second well. For now, I've set myself another US$1000 goal to help me stay on track.

Thank you for your encouragements it means a lot to me and I hope this whole multitasking business will continue to flourish until the end :) I'm flattered people seem to like what I bake, but I hope everyone is able to see past the sugar and realise the difference they are actually making by helping me out and contributing to my campaign. X.

Give because you can!