Today two volunteers came in. Matt and Jake Cowden. They are just the darling kind of 16-year old that you want your child to turn into. When I asked who wanted to do a writing project Jake quickly responded, "Matt will probably be better at that." So I let Matt write a blog entry and press release while Jake did some data entry. I'm hoping Jake comes back (he assured me that he didn't hate me too much after the assignment and would be back Wednesday). So Matt was left to introduce them. Here's what he wrote.
My name is Matt Cowden. I am 16 years old and go to Cottonwood High School; Go Colts! I am not an intern, although that is something that would be a great opportunity someday. I am writing here because my twin brother Jake and I are doing our Eagle Scout Project though Ascend Alliance.
When my brother and I first started talking about possible projects, we knew that we wanted to do something big. We didn't want to do a project that barely filled the required hours and required little planning. We wanted to do something that would make a big difference. It had to require months of preparation and work. We decided we would do a 5K race to help build a school in Ethiopia with Ascend Alliance.
Our mom is the person who told us about Ascend. She has worked with them in the past and has gone on several expeditions. She explained to us how Ascend strives to make the world a better place by helping all their beneficiaries become self-reliant. She told us about the work they have done and we knew that they would be able to help us accomplish our goals.
When we first came up with the idea a few people told us that it would be too hard. It has been plenty hard; but that's the kind of project we wanted. First we had to make sure that the police were willing to block off any roads that might need to be blocked off. We decided the mayor of Holladay, Utah would be the best person to talk to first about this problem. He was very nice and seemed really excited. He immediately called the police chief and said the city of Holladay would cover any overtime necessary for blocking roads.
We spend hours on google earth trying to come up with a reasonable rout but we couldn't find anything that worked. Luckily Kris Erickson who is the race director for Heart of Holladay was generous enough to let us use her course. The police chief and fire department agreed (the fire department even volunteered to have an EMT on site). Everyone's willingness to help has made this part of the planning as easy as possible.
What wasn't easy was getting insurance. Our mother (who by the way is the best mom ever) made countless phone calls to insurance companies and lawyers trying to figure out how we could get insurance to cover an entire race. After months of tyring to track someone down we finally ended up turning back to Kris who helped us get insured and certified by USA Track and Field.
The race will be on July 18th at 8:00 am. I made arrangements for our race to be advertised at races that took place over the holiday weekend and now we're just advertising and trying to get people to sign up. You can sign up and download a flier on our blog mattandjakes5krun.blogspot.com. If you can't come to the race but would like to donate or be a sponsor, we would appreciate anything you can do a lot. No am mount is too small, we will accept anything. If you have any questions about the race please contact me or my brother at mattandjakecowden{at}gmail{dot}com.
So what do you say people? Can you tell others about this race and help out a couple of boys trying to get their eagle scout project finished? Trying to build a school for kids in Africa? Please do. I thought this picture of one of our volunteers outside a school in Ethiopia might inspire you to help.
Sweater it is...Sweater it is.
My name is Matt Cowden. I am 16 years old and go to Cottonwood High School; Go Colts! I am not an intern, although that is something that would be a great opportunity someday. I am writing here because my twin brother Jake and I are doing our Eagle Scout Project though Ascend Alliance.
When my brother and I first started talking about possible projects, we knew that we wanted to do something big. We didn't want to do a project that barely filled the required hours and required little planning. We wanted to do something that would make a big difference. It had to require months of preparation and work. We decided we would do a 5K race to help build a school in Ethiopia with Ascend Alliance.
Our mom is the person who told us about Ascend. She has worked with them in the past and has gone on several expeditions. She explained to us how Ascend strives to make the world a better place by helping all their beneficiaries become self-reliant. She told us about the work they have done and we knew that they would be able to help us accomplish our goals.
When we first came up with the idea a few people told us that it would be too hard. It has been plenty hard; but that's the kind of project we wanted. First we had to make sure that the police were willing to block off any roads that might need to be blocked off. We decided the mayor of Holladay, Utah would be the best person to talk to first about this problem. He was very nice and seemed really excited. He immediately called the police chief and said the city of Holladay would cover any overtime necessary for blocking roads.
We spend hours on google earth trying to come up with a reasonable rout but we couldn't find anything that worked. Luckily Kris Erickson who is the race director for Heart of Holladay was generous enough to let us use her course. The police chief and fire department agreed (the fire department even volunteered to have an EMT on site). Everyone's willingness to help has made this part of the planning as easy as possible.
What wasn't easy was getting insurance. Our mother (who by the way is the best mom ever) made countless phone calls to insurance companies and lawyers trying to figure out how we could get insurance to cover an entire race. After months of tyring to track someone down we finally ended up turning back to Kris who helped us get insured and certified by USA Track and Field.
The race will be on July 18th at 8:00 am. I made arrangements for our race to be advertised at races that took place over the holiday weekend and now we're just advertising and trying to get people to sign up. You can sign up and download a flier on our blog mattandjakes5krun.blogspot.com. If you can't come to the race but would like to donate or be a sponsor, we would appreciate anything you can do a lot. No am mount is too small, we will accept anything. If you have any questions about the race please contact me or my brother at mattandjakecowden{at}gmail{dot}com.
So what do you say people? Can you tell others about this race and help out a couple of boys trying to get their eagle scout project finished? Trying to build a school for kids in Africa? Please do. I thought this picture of one of our volunteers outside a school in Ethiopia might inspire you to help.
Sweater it is...Sweater it is.
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