Have you ever watched The Amazing Race on television and thought, “That would be fun to do.” Well, on Saturday, December 5, you will get your chance to join in that fun.

Dynamic Water has partnered up with some folks supporting The Africa Hope Center to put together “The Not Very Amazing Race“. Where The Amazing Race has teams travel around the globe in search of clues that lead them to more clues and ultimately to a finish line, our version will take teams in and around downtown Raleigh in search of various characters, who will provide them with a clue that will lead them to their next clue.

Here’s some more info about the event:

• Teams will be made up of 4-6 people. This is really determined by how many people you can fit in your car.
• Each team will pay a $100 entry fee, which is where the fundraising part comes in. If you get 5 people, that’s just $20 per person.
• There will be a prize for the winning team.
• The winning team will be determined by a points system. You get points for finding each clue, for finding any of the bonus items, and for your team performing well. You lose points for having to call in to headquarters for help deciphering a clue. The team with the most points wins.
• The event is being held on Saturday, December 5, 3PM-7PM. Sign-in will begin at 2:30PM. After the race, 7PM-9PM, there will be an after-party with food, live music, etc..

We are really excited about this upcoming fundraiser. We think it will be tons of fun. So, go ahead and get your friends together and register a team.

For more information and to register, please visit the official site for the event.

As always, if you have any questions, you can contact us.

You did it!

Last week I presented you with our first goal and you came through. We needed to eclipse the $1,000 mark in donations and we did. Now, we can move forward on the first step of our Laisamis project.

Thank you to everyone that has donated already. Your contributions are making a difference in the lives of an entire community.

I posted yesterday that our first goal is to raise $1,000 to cover some upfront costs of drilling our well in Laisamis. Right now, we are about $200 away from reaching that goal.

I would like to ask 10 of you to donate $20 to cover that.

That may just seem like easy math, but in reality, $20 is a significant amount. Here’s why…

The total estimated cost* of drilling our well in Laisamis is $10,000.

It is estimated that our well will be able to serve 500 people.

So, if you do the math there ($10,000 / 500 people), the $20 you donate will provide water for 1 person.

The kicker is that it is estimated that the well will be functional for 20 years.

That’s a pretty god deal. I would be willing to bet that your water bill over the next month is going to be more than $20.

Click the donate button to be one of the 10 people that helps us reach our first goal.**

Notes:
* We will be able to determine a more exact cost for the well once we get the results of our surveys.
** If you would like to donate more, or less, than $20, you can use the donate widget at the top of our web page.

For most of 2009, our focus has been on organization. We’ve been working really hard on solving the problem of “How do you get someone to show up with a drilling rig at a specific place on the other side of the planet?” As easy as this may sound, we have found that it takes a lot of time, energy and persistence to get that lined up.

We are happy announce that through some contacts, we have found an organization to partner up with to get our well dug. We will be working with Love Mercy, who has people and a drilling rig on the ground in Kenya, not too far from Laisamis.

The first step in the process of getting our well dug is to obtain some permits from the Kenyan government and to have some geological surveys done at the drilling site. The surveys will determine the best place in the area to place the well and will also provide the drilling team with an idea of the kind of rock they will be drilling through and how far down they will have to drill.

This is a very exciting time. Up until this point, we’ve been planning and now we’ve come to the point where we are ready to start doing.

This is where you come in. We need your help. The cost of the permits and surveys is $1,000 USD. Over the past few months, we have been fundraising without specifically asking you to make a donation. Now, we are asking.

If you want to go ahead and donate the full $1,000, we won’t turn you down. However, we would not turn away donations of any amount. One measurable value is that $20 will provide water for one person for 20 years.

Please consider donating to help us reach our first goal of raising $1,000.

The folks at Now or Never Entertainment have invited us out to another one of their events. They have put together a fun afternoon of bingo and live music.

Now, we know that you may be, “Bingo?!? Isn’t that for the retirement home?” But, you should know that bingo isn’t just your grandma’s favorite past-time anymore. Just ask our friends over at the AIDS Alliance about their monthly bingo game. This event is guaranteed to be well worth the price of admission, which is only $5.

There will be prizes for every winner. They are having two 50/50 bingo games, with cash prizes. Also, on top of the bingo, they have an some great artists lined up to perform: JP Flowz, Sky Blew, Mic Savvy, and more.

When: Sunday, November 8, 4PM-8PM
Where: Mebane Art Center (map)

You can RSVP and get more information on their Facebook event.

While you’re over there on Facebook, if you haven’t done so, go ahead and become a fan of Dynamic Water. It’s the best way to keep up-to-date with what we’ve got going on.

If Facebook is not your thing, you can always email us for more information.

We really hope you’ll consider coming out. I’m especially excited given that the event is being hosted in my hometown, Mebane, NC, and it’s always nice to come home.

Sunday afternoon we attended Fresh NC, a concert/showcase featuring a couple local artists. The event organizers, Now or Never Entertainment, approached us recently to let us know that they were interested in donating a percentage of the proceeds from each ticket sale to our Laisamis Project.

The event featured performances by Jason Adamo and JP Flowz. Adamo played several new songs, some tracks off his last CD and even mixed in a Prince cover. JP rocked the stage with tracks off his recently released album Fresh H2, which you can, and should, purchase from his web site. JP shared the stage with a couple other artists, Notca and Narrator, and even broke out in an inpromtu freestyle session with Mic Savvy.

The music from both artists was great. The caterer that they brought in for the event was great, too. Mama Jean’s BBQ Shack put out an awesome spread. Ribs, chicken quarters and fried fish with some southern style green beans, baked beans, potato salad, etc. on the side. Mmm… If you’re hosting an event soon, large or small, do yourself, and your guests, a favor and talk Mama Jean’s into catering for you. You won’t be sorry.

The event was also an excellent networking opportunity for us. We had a table set up with info about our Laisamis project and were able to talk with nearly everyone that was in attendance. We made some connections with folks that want to partner up with us to do more events like this in the future. Also, on top of the proceeds from ticket sales, we managed to raise some funds selling bottled waters.

All-in-all, it was a good afternoon for Dynamic Water. Thanks again to Now or Never, Entertainment for supporting and promoting our project. We look forward to working with them again.

Things have been slow going as far as updating the web site, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been doing nothing. This Spring and Summer, we collected several large items and we have started an online “yard sale”.

We plan to post a bunch of items on craigslist and have all the proceeds from the sales go towards our Laisamis Project. You can see what we have posted so far on our Yard Sale page. We will continue to add more items as we collect them and we will add more links to craigslist ads as we create them.

If you have some items you would like to donate, please leave a comment here or contact us via email.

We’ve been getting some questions about making donations, which if you’re trying to raise funds for something, those are the questions you love to field. I’m going to answer a few here. If you have any more, please leave a comment with your question and we will answer it for everyone. You can also get a little more information on our Donate page.

Q: When can I start donating?
A: Now. We have set up our bank account and are ready to accept donations.

Q: How do I donate?
A: Currently, we are only set up to accept offline donations. We know, it’s lame. We’re working on it. In the meantime, you can mail your check to:

Dynamic Water
524 E. Whitaker Mill Road
Raleigh, NC 27608.

Checks should be made payable to Dynamic Water.

One alternative to mailing a check would be to use your bank’s bill pay service to send us your donation. You can make the bill payable to Dynamic Water and have it sent to the address above.

Q: Will I ever be able to donate online?
A: Yes. Like we said in the previous answer, we’re working on it. We are still getting it set up with the bank, but most likely we are going to get our bank account attached to a PayPal account, which will allow you to donate online.

However, one thing to note is that when you donate through PayPal, they take a cut. So, even though writing checks is old fashioned, it does allow for more of your money to go to our project.

Q: Are my donations tax deductible?
A: Yes. Dynamic Water is operating under a 501(c)(3) so all contributions are tax deductible.

Q: Money is tight, but I want to help. Can I give a little now and more later?
A: Times are tough. We’re all feeling the crunch in our wallets. You can give as much, or as little, as you want.

If you want to help, but your budget is tight, one option would be to split up your donation. Instead of giving $50 or $100 now, you could give $10 or $20 a month for a few months. We hope to step up a monthly giving program once we get our online donations set up.

I hope this has answered some of the questions you have about making donations. If there is something you want to know that is not answered here, you can leave a comment or contact us directly.

Thanks a lot for considering being a part of bringing clean water to the people of Laisamis.