Great leap forward!

[from Bill]

All - I am pleased to tell you that today we received a truly substantial gift toward the Holtkamp Organ campaign. This gift, coupled with the many outright gifts and unofficial pledges received to date, our total is over $62,000. This is a GREAT beginning!

I say "unofficial pledges" because our next step will be to gradually contact all individuals who have made a pledge and ask them to complete the "official" Institutional Advancement form. Once this is completed, then the pledges "officially count" toward our campaign (recognized by the Institution). We will notify all who have completed our "in house" pledge form with additional details. We shall do all we can to make this easy and painless.

In addition, we have some wonderful people in this University working for this cause. Thanks to Dr. Bess Haley in Institutional Advancement, and thanks to Micah Blake (our CVPA Development Officer), we were pointed to another Foundation with an apparent interest in helping us with our project. Micah and Dr. Haley really made our proposal shine. Our Holtkamp Refurbishment proposal will be submitted for consideration before the November 16 deadline.

We have only begun the campaign! We will need your assistance, pledges, and encouragement all the way to the end (and so will I by the way!) T shirts are on order and will be on sale starting tomorrow! Shirts are $10. Think about it. Every purchased shirt is equal to two days of running (10 miles) at $1 per mile! Wear them proudly. They are loud and genuine attention-getters! I will wear mine to work on Friday.

In the works: radio; TV; student organization assistance; appearances at functions/events around town; and much more.

As of this writing ... 215 miles completed. Only 785 to go by April 1. That is 21.5% of my running goal. $62,000 is 35% of our $175,000 goal! As you can see, we ALL have more to do.

My sincere thanks to all who have assisted in this project. Remember to check out the blog, the twitter account, facebook, and RunKeeper.

I believe we can make our goal!!