I wanted to follow up on my last message about this year’s Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC), in which I promised to let you know this year’s total amount raised and donated to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute by the PMC. Last Thursday, that total was revealed at the check presentation held by the PMC at Harvard Medical School: (insert drum roll…) $35 Million!

This record-breaking amount represents the largest gift that the PMC has made to Dana-Farber over the past 29 years, and it is also the single-largest gift to charity made by any athletic fundraiser in the country! Many of you contributed to this success through your support of my ride, and those of others, and I thank you.

I wrote a short piece about my experience with the PMC over the past year which was published by The Huffington Post yesterday.

We intend to continue to count on The Huffington Post as a way to spread the word about our work with The Purpose Project and to share more pieces of the stories of the leaders with whom we are working. Please find the story here, and, if you are so inclined, click on the “buzz up” button near the top (which helps build our prominence on the site).

Thanks for your continued support!
Michelle

I wanted to share some exciting news: my colleague and co-author Michelle Cote was selected from 3000+ applicants to represent The Purpose Project at Women Rule!—a joint initiative of The Oprah Magazine and The White House Project to support 80 women, each with an “idea that could change the world.”

Michelle applied and was selected earlier this year, but we had to wait until now to share the news since O! Magazine was the first to “announce” the women in the October issue of their magazine, which hit newsstands Tuesday.

This is a great achievement for Michelle and a great opportunity for The Purpose Project. In addition to a three-day leadership workshop earlier this year, Michelle will receive ongoing access to mentoring, coaching and a great network of women changemakers. (It also moves us one step closer to getting our book on Oprah’s book club list one day!)

You can check out the short profiles of Michelle and the other women in the online version of O! Magazine here. The Hartford Courant also had a short article in yesterday’s paper, which is available here.

Warmly,
Matthew

A few weeks ago, we told you that we would be participating in the 2008 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) as part of our efforts to capture the story of its founder, Billy Starr. Many of you have asked since then how it went, and I wanted to take a moment to share some of the personal reflections that I collected along the two day, 192-mile pedal from Sturbridge to Provincetown.

As Matt and I set off for the opening ceremonies on the eve of the ride, I was filled with anticipation and more than a little trepidation. Even after more than four months of dedicated training, I still didn’t know how I was going to fare over the next 48 hours, or how I was going to make it past the first fifty miles of hills. But, when we arrived at the Sturbridge Host Hotel, my focus quickly shifted away from the physical challenge that lay in front of me. The PMC’s opening ceremonies–presented to an emotionally charged, standing-room-only crowd in the hotel’s ballroom that evening–were a reminder of why the event is so much more than a test of physical endurance. Read the rest of this entry »

One Challenge Met
We want to thank you for your response to our recent challenge grant. Together, your contributions pushed us past our $20,000 goal and secured the matching funds! This achievement comes at a critical time for us and helps us establish a base of funding for the project that we will be able to draw on into the coming year.

One More to Go
This weekend, we will participate in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC)–a 192 mile bike-a-thon supporting cancer research–as part of our efforts to share the story of its Founder, Billy Starr.

Shortly after losing his mother and two other family members to cancer during his final year in college, Billy lost his direction in life–for a while. And it was cycling, his favored outlet for coping with his grief, that brought him back on track. After graduation, Billy began getting up before dawn and setting off on a new personal challenge: to bike 140 miles from his parents’ house in Newton, MA, to Provincetown in time to catch the 3:30 PM ferry home. Read the rest of this entry »

The story behind the story of this year’s primary elections has been the power and influence of America’s youth vote. Record numbers of young adults are turning out to make their voices heard; in some states, turnout rates among young adults have doubled or even tripled. Barack Obama, in particular, has struck a chord among young adults with his message for change: among the under-30 crowd, voters are breaking almost 2:1 in his favor.* We’ve found these statistics interesting not only as indicators of political strategy, but as evidence of a new level of growing civic participation among young adults. According to Peter Levine, director of the civic engagement research group CIRCLE, rising youth turnout rates are reflective of this generation’s “deep concern about the critical issues at stake and the impact of this election on our country’s future.” Young adults are anxious for change and are now considering voting as one way to play a role in determining our collective future. Read the rest of this entry »

An Overview of Our Vision and Plans for the Next Two Years

April-September, 2008: Fundraising and Research

During this period, we will work to fundraise and establish a solid base of support for the project. Both of us will meet with prospective funders and work to establish partnerships with publishers, college and university faculty and student groups, community groups, and organizations promoting civic engagement. Our secondary focus will be on continuing to conduct interviews and writing the next two chapters of the book with Billy Starr, Founder of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, and Liz Titus Putnam, Founder of Student Conservation Association. Read the rest of this entry »

Our Key Accomplishments: Fall 2006 - Spring 2008

Fall 2006: The Idea is Born

• Project concept formed through conversations with each other and Matt’s mentors, Bob and Alice Evans (founders of Plowshares Institute).
• Developed preliminary goal: to capture and disseminate the wisdom and experience that Bob and Alice had acquired over their careers.
• Quickly expanded our mission to include a diverse selection of accomplished changemakers whose stories could inspire and equip a new generation of social leaders.
• Began researching the extent of our generation’s social involvement, and studying and talking to members of our “target audience” to define the challenge and opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »

In the fall of 1972, Bob and Alice Evans (founders of Plowshares Institute) moved to Uganda with their three young children for a teaching sojourn in “The Pearl of Africa.” The excerpt that follows begins their story of nurturing a fledgling resistance movement under Amin’s oppressive regime-and the struggles and surprises they encountered along the way.

***

Sunrise was elusive that Friday morning in late September, held at bay by a driving rain. Droplets pelted the roof and sent a reverberating echo through the building, like a barrage of bullets bouncing off the scalloped clay tile. In the kitchen, Cabanesa was already at work returning last night’s dishes to their proper places, sorting a pile of laundry, and brewing a pot of Kenyan coffee that wafted a rich aroma through the open rafters into the bedroom where Alice tried hopelessly to sleep. While the rain had scared away the sun, it hadn’t deterred the mosquitoes. Their buzzing accompanied Bob’s steady snoring, and the cacophony of sounds filled the emptiness of the room. Alice remained restless but still, and hoped that her husband who lay beside her was at peace and dreaming about better places. Read the rest of this entry »

While getting to know some new friends, I was asked, “So, what do you do?” After explaining the framework for The Purpose Project, and our goal to inspire more young adults to take on the problems that are confronting our world, a conversation that started as small talk quickly turned into a spirited discussion.

Like many other members of our generation, the group around the table that day was frustrated by the issues that fill the news: the state of our environment, our political system, our economy, just to name a few. Momentum seemed to build as people took turns pointing out the causes or the implications of an issue and sharing the ways in which social issues present themselves in their lives. But after the venting subsided, the energy that had filled the conversation disappeared as quickly as it had come. What was the source of this sudden buzz-kill? That persistent, and difficult to answer question: “What can we do?” Read the rest of this entry »

This is the new website for The Purpose Project, a nonprofit venture working to create a dialogue between different generations of social changemakers: those who will soon retire, and those who will be responsible for leading us forward.

We’re excited about having a more robust, blog-based website where we can share our progress with you more easily. This customizable platform, powered by WordPress will allow us to post updates as we conduct interviews with the changemakers, write articles and chapters from the book, and begin to develop the curricula and teaching tools.