Ticket to Ride!

"...We were inspired by you. We are reaching out to you asking how you got the money? What kind of fundraising things did you do? The cost for us is pretty high so we will need to do a lot of fundraising. Thank you for the help." A young girl from Richford middle school wrote to me in an email a few weeks ago.

This inquiry, so simple, and yet, so profound, has created it's own inspiration for me. I was starting to feel like the $500 I had to give back to the community which has supported me so generously was too small of a sum to have much of an impact. I had sort of resigned myself to giving the funds to one young person to help them pursue their dream. But any solution you have to resign yourself to is far from its potential and I knew it.

So when my friend Hila Shooter's mum suggested I buy copies of the book her daughter wrote to pass on the gift, I jumped at the opportunity. Ticket to Ride is an incredibly well written, to the point, and useful guide to fundraising for teens which Hila wrote after her experience fundraising for the same semester program I participated in this fall. It is a truly phenomenal book and I am honored to have the opportunity to pass it on.

Thus far, I have given the book to three young people from the area and I look forward to continuing to give them out to people who need them. I have opened a bank account to pay for shipping the books, and I am hoping that eventually the project will be able to sustain itself if people who can afford to spend the $15 to buy the book contribute to the fund and help those who can't have access to the book.

If there is a ticket you don't have the resources to buy, or if you know someone who has been dreaming of an adventure they never thought they could manifest, please send me an email by sending me a Ticket to Ride book request on the left side bar. I would be happy to send you a copy and help edit fundraising letters, plan events, etc. Just send me a brief message explaining your project and your address, and I will send you a book!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me,
Love, peace and inspiration,
Sonya

PS. Check out the book through the link below! 

http://tickettoridebook.com/Ticket_to_Ride_Book/Home.html

Semester Photos :)

If you've been dying to see pictures of the semester, and haven't been able to see any yet, here you go! There are definitely way more pictures on this slideshow than you would ever want to watch, but just in case you are the kind of person who can look at hundreds of pictures, Dan, one of the parents of semester students, created a slideshow with all of the photos from the semester which he kindly shared with us.

Enjoy,
Sonya

ps. You'll need a password to watch the slideshow-it is ESP2013

https://vimeo.com/82831438

Home

The semester ended exactly two weeks ago today and I can hardly believe it. I remember when I was going to be leaving in two weeks, and when I'd been on semester for two weeks, and already I am home. The transition has been relatively smooth for me thanks to my family and friends who have given me the time to go out and be quiet in nature when I need to. Of course there are still places that are hard to be in. Like grocery stores and malls where most things come from the other side of the country, or the globe. But that has always frustrated me and Kroka merely gave me the space to see it in clearer perspective.

So here I am, at home, missing my friends from semester, but enjoying the time with my family and friends who I haven't seen in a while. It is a time of coming down from the mountainside, out of the wilderness, to sit back and reflect upon the journey I just took. It is a strange time, but a time rife with opportunity to change my life at home for the better. A time to take what I've learned and apply it.

I am looking forward to helping my dad build bee hives at our house and work in our garden, but I've also come home with a restlessness that I can't imagine will leave me anytime soon. I got a taste of travelling, of seeing new lifestyles, meeting new people, tasting new food, and I want to learn more. There is so much more to understand about this world we live in, so much more to see, to hear, to feel. I love school, but there's only so much I can learn from books and discussions. And teachers come in many forms.

So basically, I'm ready to leave for the next adventure. I'm interested in biking across the country and I think I might just buy myself a good camera instead of a computer (I donated mine to Kroka at the beginning of semester) and travel on my own for a while this spring. But not before I share my stories and pass on the gift I've been given. I am looking forward to giving presentations about my experience and figuring out a way to create a sustainable fund with the money I have left from fundraising. I am hoping to help young people from my school who want to go on an adventure of some sort and learn in new ways to fundraise for their dreams. Fundraising was such a vital part of my experience with Kroka and I am infinitely grateful to all those who made it possible. It is such a gift to be humbled and inspired by the generosity and love of so many people. Being able to pass on this gift would be an honor.

If you have any suggestions about the fund, send me an email, or write a comment. I have never created anything of this sort before. Also, if you haven't been reading the semester blog and you would like to read about our adventures, the address is http://krokaecuadorsemester2013.blogspot.com/ and I actually ended up having the job of scribe on semester, so I wrote the blog.

Love, peace and fresh air,
Sonya

p.s I will post the dates and locations of my presentations once I establish them with the various people I have agreed to do presentations for. I will also get some pictures up as soon as I can, but in the mean time, I do have some pictures on my Facebook page.