The Experimental Recession-Era One-Dollar Dragonboat Plea

Look, on August 2nd I will be racing a dragonboat, whatever that is, over the perilous and unpredictable surf of Lake Champlain .... and I need your help. YES, I WRITE TO YOU TODAY TO ASK FOR YOUR DONATION.



(Brief pause here while the aisles clear--but please read on)



HERE'S THE DEAL:



This year's Lake Champlain Dragonboat Festival is in major support of Vermont's Camp
Ta-Kum-Ta (TKT), a summer camp for kids who have--or have had--cancer.



My son went to TKT last year, and I CANNOT BEGIN to explain what an amazing experience it was for him (nor how his experience has reverberated through our lives).



This summer I'm honored to be racing a dragonboat as part of the dubiously-named-but-official "Team Puff Ta-Kum-Ta Dragon" with TKT staff, former campers, and parents of present campers. We may or may not win any races but, you know, we're unsinkable.



WHAT I'M GETTING AT:

• I don't want you to sustain my dragonboat career.
• I don't want your corporate matching.
  
• I don't even want your tens and twenties.

NO I DON'T.



But can you part with...ONE THIN DOLLAR?



I would humbly suggest that you (probably) can.



I mean, check your pockets right now (I don't even fold dollar bills any more, I just
crumple them up in my pockets). Pull out one of those bills and study it carefully. What are you REALLY going to do with it? Buy a cookie? Try to get a cup of coffee? Good choices, certainly, but helping kids with cancer feel empowered, loved, part of a community of peers...? Now and then it feels good to float a dollar in THAT kind of direction.



SO HERE'S WHAT I THINK YOU SHOULD DO:



Take that crumpled dollar bill--right now, before reading your next email, before
answering your phone--and place it in an envelope and send it to me (Rob Ryan) at this address:



3959 Center Rd.

East Montpelier, VT 05651



Don't include a letter, don't include a message on a post-it, don't even email me to say you're on board. Just drop the dollar in the mail. Nothing more, nothing less.



And no, this is not a scam. This is fund-raising stripped down to its essentials. You won't get a receipt. You won't get any tax benefits. You might not even get a handshake. :-) But you'll get that warm feeling of knowing that you helped build Camp Ta-Kum-Ta's new home in South Hero, Vermont. And that's worth far more than a buck.



Thanks; you rock my boat.



--Rob