I Raise My Glass Blog

Raise Your Glass For Haiti

Jerry Miner — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:47:54 GMT

As we entered the new year, we invited you to join us in toast to those without safe water and a New Year’s resolution to do all you could to provide safe water for those in need. Our goal was simple, but bold. We wanted to spread the word about the daily crisis of unsafe water to more than 20,000 people. We also hoped to raise a substantial amount of money by asking each person to give $10. We still have a long way to go to reach that goal. However, little did we know that “I Raise my Glass” would take on such a magnified opportunity.

The earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday evening shows just how timely this resolution is. Today, Water Missions prepared for shipment $200,000 of equipment and this will not be enough. Over the course of the next days and weeks the survivors in Port au Prince will face a critcial shortage of safe water. Will you help? The time is now! The needs are great! And Water Missions is ready!

How fortunate we are to have Julio and Elsa Paula as our new country directorts in Haiti! Julio and Elsa previously served WMI’s relief efforts in Sri Lanka following the tsunami of 2004 and have recently transferred to Port-au-Prince. They are seasoned veterans. When the quake hit, Julio was hours from Port Au Prince, but Elsa was there at the office. We have yet to speak to them, but we understand through others that they are safe.

Just recently we asked Julio to raise his glass to the people of Haiti. Now we ask you to join him. Will you join him in raising a glass of HOPE!

Never has a toast been more timely, or needed.

Please spread hope on behalf of the people of Haiti.

Let's Set a Record

Jerry Miner — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:10:49 GMT

When I first thought of proposing a toast for those without safe water, I thought it would be cool to get 2010 people to raise a glass with me and toast the nearly 1 billion people without safe water to bring in the New Year of 2010. Then I played with the numbers and thought -what would happen if I could get 2000 people to give $10. Wow! That would be $20,000 but then- What if we could get 2000 people to get 10 friends together for a toast and a $10 donation . Double WOW! Now we are talking $220,000 and 22,000 people getting safe water. And so, we launched the challenge to do that with I RAISE MY GLASS!

BUT- then I found out about the great Guinness toast held each year. Here is information from Wikipedia:

The Great Guinness Toast is an annual event that takes place across the world on, according to Guinness, the 13th of February. The event is considered to have repeatedly broken the world record for largest toast. n 1993, Guinness, authors of the book of world records and purveyors of stouts, ales and lagers, decided to establish a new world record, the world’s largest toast. Apparently, since its inception, The Great Guinness Toast has consistently grown and breaks its own record each and every year.

In 2001 and as captured in the Guinness Book of Records, over 300,000 adults, age 21 and older, raised their pint glasses of Guinness. The Great Guinness Toast will be held in more than 60 cities across the U.S.

The Great Guinness Toast was started by the folks of Muhlaney's Harp & Fiddle Pub in Pittsburgh, PA.

From what I understand in 2009 they set a record of more than 485,000 people, so I am thinking: Why can't we get that many people to come together to toast those without safe water on New Year's eve or New Year's day. This is just a few more people than we thought before, but can we do it? Why not?

Well here are a few reasons why we might not be able to do this:

People do not know about the problem (You are on this web site so you do- now tell others!).
People do not have enough time. (How long would it take you to ask 10 friends to text WMI to 89544 and then YES to confirm the message-less than an hour?)
People do not have enough money. (We will spend $450 billion on Christmas presents in the US this year - for $10 billion we could pretty much take care of the problem - that is less than the sales tax collected on the presents)
People do not care. I cannot fix that one- but you do not have to care a lot to make a big difference!

So can we do it? Of course we can. Let's go. Send the emails, call friends, send texts, do all you can to make a difference.

Merry Christmas!

Jerry Miner

Raise Your Glass Blog

Jerry Miner — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:40:12 GMT

Welcome to the I RAISE MY GLASS blog. Thank you for joining with us. We think this is going to be an exciting initiative. The concept is simple - get lots of people with lots of friends with lots of interest and with a little money. So with a little effort and little money we will get lots of people safe clean drinking water.

Our basic plan is to find 2000 people who will be willing to propose a toast on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day on behalf of the nearly 1 billion people who lack access to safe water and make a New Year's resoultion to do ALL you can to help them get safe water in 2010. Chances are not many of your friends know about this problem so we are hoping that you might be one of the 2000 who is willing to tell others. To put some teeth to your resolution, please consider asking your frineds to give $10 each. In many of our projects $10 is all that is needed to provide water for another person. So think of it this way - You are not giving $10 - you are giving a gift of safe water. Your gift on New Year's day can give water to another person for many years.

So join in! Sign the resolution! Evite friends to come along! Help spread the Text- to- Give number! For those of you with lots of friends - do not stop at 10- ask them all!

And yes, before you ask - you do not have to have to wait to New Year's Eve to give you can give now!