Karman has been blogging like crazy and giving updates about this wonderful and crazy adventure we are on, and my one job was to write up an intro so that all of her blogs had some context. Well, I was late on doing it, so I'm sorry if it seems like we just somehow disappeared from Fargo and showed up in Thailand with no explanation. I'll try give a little background about how this little journey came about in the first place, and we'll fill in more details in the coming days via some additional posts.
So, why the heck are we here at the other side of the world anyway? I guess it started about two years ago when I went to a social entrepreneur weekend retreat with about 20 other idealistic do-gooders (I was merely a wannabe compared to that amazing group of people) that were all very passionate about doing things that would make the world a better place in some way. I was inspired, and ended up meeting an amazing individual and the best school teacher on the planet, Beth Ekre. We discovered we both had a passion for wanting to teach young people (middle school, high school, and college aged) about empathy, giving service, gratitude, having the right mindset, and leaning the skills needed to identify a cause they were passionate about and then go do something about it.
We wanted to also give them different perspective on the world in a global sense - one not centered around the latest iPhone or the current clothing trends, but rather one about communities not having clean water to drink so kids are missing school from illness, or evil human beings that believe trafficking young children (the same ages as our own kids) is okay to do. We wanted to do this in a way that could potentially be life-changing and perhaps inspiring to them. That's when Wildfire Youth Venture was born - a non-profit organization that works with and mentors students on practicing social entrepreneurship in both local and global causes. As parents of teens and pre-teens, we wanted our own kids (Syler, Caiden, Zenna, Meghan, and Clayton) to be involved in our new program from the get go and get many other kids in the 12-20 age range involved as well.
We had a terrific first year in which we worked with about 70 kids in our region to hold the first annual "Ultimate Life Summit - Fargo" (ULS) with our partners - Dakota Medical Foundation, the YMCA, the authors of 7 Mindsets (Scott Shickler and Jeff Waller), and West Fargo Public schools. Karman, our girls, and Beth's kids all joined and helped every step of the way, both for the ULS as well as spending hundreds of hours working on the Alexa's Hope Give to Live Challenge in November in which we made an attempt for a new Guinness World Record to sign up the most new organ donor registrations in an 8 hour period. Though we didn't set a new world record, we know it made a big difference for the hundreds of people that did sign up to be registered as organ donors, and we had a great time doing it.
The next fall (Sept 2013), Karman joined along in the social entrepreneurship retreat. We heard from an older couple (one was a doctor) that had volunteered to give free care to those in need in developing countries around the world. They said it was the best thing they had ever done in their lives - it was fulfilling, exciting, fun, and it made them happy to be making a big difference in the lives of others. We asked them and the rest of the group whether they thought we should bring our kids and do it as a family. It was an overwhelming "yes" from everyone at the retreat. That was the spark about 10 months ago that got us thinking about putting together this trip and taking our kids with us. We merged this idea together with what we were doing with our Wildfire project and things eventually came together on it.
So, why Thailand? Well, because our first concern was the safety of our kids, we wanted to be sure we had a recommendation from someone we trusted that had been to the place we would end up going. A dear friend of ours, Than Baardson, heads up a wonderful organization called Unseen Ministries located in Fargo. If you haven't visited their website, look them up as they are doing great work around the world in addressing poverty, hunger, and child trafficking - all causes that Karman, Beth, and I wanted to do something about - whatever form that may take.
So, Than had been to where we are now as part of one of his mission trips, and he said this would be a great fit for us - relatively safe, kid friendly, and most certainly in great need of some things we could possibly help with. Plus, he gave us some great contacts here, Kara Bennet and Salinee Tavernan (they run Grace Garden), that have been wonderful to work with in helping us put together a great itinerary of training sessions and meetings with regional healthcare, education, sustainable energy, and not for profit organizations throughout the region (primarily in the city of Mae Sot and the nearby village of Noh Bo). Beth was hoping to come, but plans didn't work out, but she was a huge help in preparing. She, however, plans to go next year for sure (yes, we would love to make this something we would like to do regularly, if possible).
So that is how we this all came about. It has been quite an adventure just in the planning for this trip, which we started doing in earnest about 4 or 5 months ago. And now we're actually here, and the adventure just got amped up about 10 notches. We will share more details on what all we are doing during this three week trip to the "Land of Smiles" in some upcoming blog posts, including what we are contemplating as our more-than-a-little-bit-crazy "big vision" for this might become. No, mom and dad, we are not moving to Thailand (that was the next question I'm sure). We'll tell you more about that soon. This post is plenty long enough already.
คืนที่ดี, ("good night" in Thai)
- Mark
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