The follwing is a letter that Bill Weinberg wrote that he is sending to friends and acqaintances. He has given permission for all ICOers to use this as a template to send to your friends.
As you know, I volunteer as a rafting guide with the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings (ICO), an all-volunteer outreach program of the Sierra Club that provides wilderness experiences for people who might not otherwise have them. Most participants are young people from urban communities, but ICO also conducts trips for other groups that do not have access to outdoor activities. Since 1979, we've taken thousands of people down the river from groups as diverse as boys and girls clubs, inner city recreation centers and drug and alcohol recovery programs.
Our program costs over $ 15,000 a year. While some money is is spent renting rafts, buying equipment, training our volunteers (to be guides and in the necessary skills in first aid, CPR and swiftwater rescue), most of it is used to help pay the costs of the groups we take rafting. We've survived on the generous, individual donations from our fundraising activities. Last year we ran two fundraising rafting trips and a dinner.
We're putting on this year's fundraiser dinner in Berkeley on Sunday, February 28th. We'll have great food, an inspiring speaker or two and many other wonderful guests to meet. Both Mary and I will be helping to put it on and I was hoping you could attend. The cost for the meal is $ 20.00 per person. During desert we'll be asking you for a donation.
Please let me know if you'd like to attend so I can reserve a place for you. If you can't be at the dinner but would like to support ICO rafting, you can make a donation here.
This year we're struggling to make this wonderful program cheaper for the people we serve. Be assured that 100% of your generous donation will go to take kids down the river. Please help.
Here is an updated version from Harold:
As you know, I volunteer as a rafting guide with the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings (ICO), an all-volunteer outreach program of the Sierra Club that provides wilderness experiences for people who might not otherwise have them. Most participants are young people from urban communities, but ICO also conducts trips for other groups that do not have access to outdoor activities. Since 1979, we've taken thousands of people down the river from groups as diverse as boys and girls clubs, inner city recreation centers and drug and alcohol recovery programs.
Our program costs well over $ 15,000 a year. While some money is is spent renting rafts, buying equipment, and training our volunteers (to be guides and in the necessary skills of first aid, CPR and swiftwater rescue), most of it is used to help defray the actual trip costs of the groups we take rafting. We receive almost no Sierra Club money, but instead rely on our fundraising activities to provide the needs of the program, some of which include fundraising rafting trips and a dinner. Because of this, we’ve been able to help lower the costs of the trips we run to the various groups we take, and although we cannot yet provide full stipends to our groups, we’ve been able to steadily increase our share over the last few years. And we have a stated goal of being able to provide our trips at no cost in the not too distant future. Given the realities of groups and population we work with, this would substantially lower the threshold of access, and allow many many more kids to experience a day or a weekend out of the city, on the river, and in contact with the natural world. To date, it is solely due to generous, individual donations, large and small, that we have been able to continue this special program.
We're putting on this year's fundraiser dinner in Berkeley on Sunday, February 28th. We'll have great food, an inspiring speaker or two and many other wonderful guests to meet. You will have the chance to meet the folks that I am privileged to call my friends and who expend so much personal time, and energy in the service of the kids. I will be there helping out, and I was hoping you could attend. The cost for the meal is $ 20.00 per person. During desert we will be asking you for a donation.
Please let me know if you'd like to attend so I can reserve a place for you. If you can't be at the dinner but would like to support ICO rafting, you can still make a donation. Go to http://ico.sierracl ub.org/sfbayraft ing/donate. htm and click on “donate now”, or you can send a check to the address listed on the page. You can also help by forwarding this note to anyone you know who might be interested.
This year we're struggling to make this wonderful program cheaper for the people we serve. Be assured that 100% of your generous donation will go to take kids down the river. Please help.
Thank you,
Harold